Investing.com – Israel equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Banking, Communication and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Tel Aviv, the TA 25 rose 0.23%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the TA 25 were Strauss Group (TA:STRS), which rose 2.23% or 136 points to trade at 6238 at the close. Poalim (TA:POLI) added 2.19% or 45 points to end at 2096 and Israel Corp (TA:ILCO) was up 1.81% or 1170 points to 65850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included ICL Israel Chemicals Ltd (TA:ICL), which lost 2.18% or 34 points to trade at 1525 in late trade. OPKO Health Inc (TA:OPK) declined 1.03% or 39 points to end at 3740 and Azrieli Group (TA:AZRG) shed 0.82% or 140 points to 16900.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 182 to 165 and 98 ended unchanged on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
In commodities trading, Crude oil for September delivery was up 2.39% or 1.12 to $47.91 a barrel. Meanwhile, Brent oil for delivery in October rose 1.28% or 0.64 to hit $50.49 a barrel, while the December Gold contract rose 0.54% or 7.35 to trade at $1356.15 a troy ounce.
USD/ILS was down 0.61% to 3.7688, while EUR/ILS fell 0.36% to 4.2691.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.40% at 94.31.