Decline of Bank Stocks on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Amid Regional Tensions

SadaNews - The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange witnessed limited movements today, Monday, trending towards a decline amid the ongoing security tensions in the Middle East and their impacts on the markets, according to a translation by Sada Economy from the Hebrew newspaper "Calcalist."

According to the report, the TA-35 and TA-125 indices moved close to the opening level before declining by about 0.6%. Meanwhile, the Tel Aviv Banks Index (TA Banks) recorded a decline of about 2%, while the real estate index fell by 1.3% and the insurance index by approximately 1.5%.

The bank sector led the wave of decline, as Discount Bank's stock dropped by 2.4%, while Leumi and Bank Leumi shares fell by about 2.2%. Bank Hapoalim's stock decreased by around 2%, and Mizrahi Tefahot's stock declined by 1.6%. Overall, bank stocks recorded a decrease of about 1.3% during trading, according to Sada Economy's translation.

In contrast, some technology companies recorded positive performance, with Matrix's stock rising by about 7% after it announced strong financial results, while One Technologies' stock increased by 4.6% and Max's stock rose by around 0.5%. Conversely, NewMed Energy's stock fell by 2.6%, while Akerstein's stock declined by about 3% despite its announcement of annual results.

As translated by Sada Economy, according to financial data, Matrix ended the year 2025 with record revenues of approximately 6.2 billion shekels, an increase of 11.8% compared to the previous year, with net profits rising to 330 million shekels. One Technologies also recorded a 16% annual revenue growth to reach 4.65 billion shekels.

In contrast, Akerstein, a company involved in concrete production and infrastructure products, announced that its revenues rose to 1.04 billion shekels during 2025, an increase of 14.9%. However, its profits declined by 45% to approximately 94 million shekels due to a decrease in the value of some real estate investment assets.

NewMed Energy's data also showed a decline in revenues and profits during the last quarter of the year, despite an increase in gas sales volume from the "Leviathan" field, due to falling gas prices and losses related to overseas drilling projects.

These movements come amid the impacts of rising security tensions in the region on the Israeli economy, where the continued launching of rockets and security threats have disrupted gas platforms in the Mediterranean Sea, including the "Leviathan" and "Karish" fields, for the third time since the outbreak of the October 7th war, causing estimated losses of about 600 million shekels in the energy sector.