The shekel was higher against the major western currencies in the official fixing by the Bank of Israel on Thursday. After approaching the NIS3.802 mark in commercial trading Thursday morning, the United States dollar was set at 3.866 shekels, down .617 percent from Wednesday's rate.

The euro lost almost three quarters of a percent to NIS 5.4331 and the pound was set at 6.3348 shekels, a loss of .948 percent.