Wall Street is bullish on Israel. Regardless of recent political changes, all the indexes are up, according to the heads of nine of the top publicly traded Israeli companies on Wall Street, who recently met potential investors at a forum here, sponsored by the California Israel Chamber of Commerce.
According to the charts and company reports, the current balance reads:
Stocks of 83 Israeli companies are now traded in U.S. markets, primarily on NASDAO, more than those of any other foreign country, except Canada.
The combined market value of these companies top $32 billion, and by the end of this year, some 100 Israel companies will be listed.
Venture capitalists are now investing more money in Israeli companies than those of Britain, France and Germany combined. In 1995 alone, foreign investments in Israel increased by more than 140 percent.
Israel’s gross national product per capita stands at $15,600, making the country one of the world’s wealthier nations.
Israeli exports are reaching new markets, especially in the Far East, Eastern Europe and Arab nations.
Stocks in Israeli companies actually perform better on American exchanges than on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
As to the impact of the recent rise of the Likud government, Haim Nissenson, the chief executive officer of Rada Electronics, said he had seen no change of attitude on the part of Arab and European trading partners.
Robert Rosenschein, president of Accent Software, concurred, noting that “peace has opened certain doors, and once they are open they are hard to close. The attitude is politics is politics, and business is business.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
