Stock shares on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange continued to dive Thursday in the wake of the world-wide drop in markets, led by the American stock exchanges. As usual, the market reactions in Israel are stiffer than those elsewhere because of their dependency on the American market. The real state index is off 4% following the crisis in the industry sparked by the collapse of Heftzibah and the world-wide credit crunch.
The dollar-shekel rate has been relatively stable as investors expect a higher interest rate following the July inflation rate of 1.1 percent. The representative rate is currently 4.241 shekels to the dollar.