Saturday, June 19, 2010

Palestinian Stock Exchange in Talks in Tel Aviv

Whilst there is so much talk about boycotts of Israeli products in general and products from the “settlements” in particular, the CEO of the Palestine Securities Exchange (PSE) met with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange CEO to consider ways of cooperating recently.

This according to Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 17, 2010

The last time representatives of the two stock exchanges met was in 1995, when the late Yitzhak Rabin was prime minister.

Based in Nablus, the PSE has 39 companies listed. The market is open five days a week from 10 am to 1 pm. Seven of the companies are banks, five are insurance, eight are investment firms, ten are manufacturers, and nine are service companies. The PSE only trades in stocks; there are no options or other financial instruments, because there is no demand for them.

Two months ago, the PSE CEO was a guest at the Herzog Fox Neeman law firm's Arab Business Conference, where he talked about the Palestinian capital market and options for raising money on it. Most of the participants at the conference were Israeli-Arab businessmen and Israelis who invest in the Arab sector.

It appears that as yet there is not even one Arab-owned company among the 771 companies with securities (either stocks and/or bonds) traded on the TASE in April.


Nevertheless, it seems business is business - it is good to see.

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