JERUSALEM, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) realized a daily turnover of 390 million U.S. dollars in equity market in 2017, an increase of 18 percent compared to 2016, according to a briefing held by the TASE.
By the end of 2017, a total of 457 companies had been listed in the stock exchange, of which 61 were dual-listing with international exchanges, and 129 high-tech companies, accounting for 28 percent.
Meanwhile, the total market capitalization of the share market reached 231 billion dollars. In 2017 alone, 20 companies were new shares-listed.
Ittai Ben Zeev, the TASE chief executive officer, said at the briefing that TASE's substantial internal strengths include an active and liquid bond market, mutual fund clearing and settlement, stable technological infrastructures, the one-stop shop and a dual-listing system.
In 2017, 20 billion dollars of capital was raised in corporate bonds excluding structured ones, while the daily turnover in the TASE bond market reached one billion dollars.
A total of 3.4 billion dollars were raised in the TASE share market, of which 0.8 billion dollars in IPOs.
Affected by the declining prices of pharmaceutical shares, the main stock index, the TA-35 index, rose merely three percent in 2017.
Starting in Februrary 2017, the reform of TASE share prices indexes, by which the weight of large-cap shares in the index was lowered, mitigated the negative impact pharmaceutical shares exerted on the index's returns.
Talking about the future strategy, Zeev said 10 to 15 government companies are expected to be listed with estimated floating of 4.3 billion dollars during the 2018-2020 period, as the asset ownership of government companies is being transferred from the government to the public, which will attract a lot of local and global investor attention.
He also said they are trying to attract more high-tech companies to be listed in the TASE by increasing supply of funding and level expertise, exposure to international investors and cost savings, reliefs and incentives.
The chief executive officer also hoped that with more Chinese investment delegations visiting Israel to seek cooperation opportunities, more Chinese companies could get listed in the TASE.
