After a day of quiet trading, the resignation, announced at 3:50 P.M., brought a wave of hysteria to the stock market, bringing leading indexes down sharply. They returned to normal Monday morning.
The Tel Aviv 25 index dropped on Sunday by 5.2% to 666 points, with shares comprising the Tel Aviv 100 losing 4.5% of their value by closing. Banking stocks were particularly hard hit, with Bank Leumi, falling by 5.2% and Bank HaPoalim by 6.26%.
Panic selling boosted turnover to NIS 1.17 billion, two-thirds of which accrued during the last two hours of trading.
The shekel also took a beating in foreign currency markets. While there is no official currency trading on Sunday, the shekel lost 1.8% of its value against the dollar in options trading. A similar decline was posted in options trading against the euro.
Shekel and cost-of-living indexed bonds also fell by over 1.4%.
Netanyahu’s tenure as Finance Minister has been credited with bringing Israel out of recession, controlling the deficit, and bringing much needed stability to financial markets. The Finance Minister has also been criticized as being too close to business interests and not sufficiently addressing the needs of Israel’s poor and unemployed.
Following the resignation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer that Netanyahu’s resignation would not harm economic policy and that budgetary and deficit projections would not be exceeded.
Sharon announced Sunday evening that Netanyahu would be replaced by Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert. Acting Finance Minister Olmert has been Sharon's political ally throughout the tenure of the current government. Sharon appointed Olmert as Vice Prime Minister, despite the latter's poor showing (slot #32) in the Likud Party primaries.
The Tel Aviv 25 index dropped on Sunday by 5.2% to 666 points, with shares comprising the Tel Aviv 100 losing 4.5% of their value by closing. Banking stocks were particularly hard hit, with Bank Leumi, falling by 5.2% and Bank HaPoalim by 6.26%.
Panic selling boosted turnover to NIS 1.17 billion, two-thirds of which accrued during the last two hours of trading.
The shekel also took a beating in foreign currency markets. While there is no official currency trading on Sunday, the shekel lost 1.8% of its value against the dollar in options trading. A similar decline was posted in options trading against the euro.
Shekel and cost-of-living indexed bonds also fell by over 1.4%.
Netanyahu’s tenure as Finance Minister has been credited with bringing Israel out of recession, controlling the deficit, and bringing much needed stability to financial markets. The Finance Minister has also been criticized as being too close to business interests and not sufficiently addressing the needs of Israel’s poor and unemployed.
Following the resignation, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer that Netanyahu’s resignation would not harm economic policy and that budgetary and deficit projections would not be exceeded.
Sharon announced Sunday evening that Netanyahu would be replaced by Industry and Trade Minister Ehud Olmert. Acting Finance Minister Olmert has been Sharon's political ally throughout the tenure of the current government. Sharon appointed Olmert as Vice Prime Minister, despite the latter's poor showing (slot #32) in the Likud Party primaries.