While I wouldn't pretend to give you advice on how to play the Israeli market, there were several country funds that invested solely in Israeli stocks; there are, by the way, upwards of 100 Israeli stocks that trade on NYSE, ASE and Nasdaq. One fund on NYSE that comes to mind is ISL, which I do not follow. The New England family of funds did have an Israeli fund but I believe it folded not long after starting in view of lack of investment.
There have been a rash of overview stories in various financial publications about Israeli high-techs in the last several months. Check out Business Week of Feb. 3, Individual Investor of several months ago (which, by the way, has two Israeli companies, BTGC and NICEY, on its Magic 25 list for '97) and some others whose publications escape me for the moment.
As for myself, I invest in the Israeli market in two ways; long and short term. I have several "core" holdings such as Teva Pharmaceuticals and ECI Telephone which I purchased some years ago and have shown excellent growth records. I keep accumulating on pullbacks. I do speculate as well and occasionally day trade since many of those IPOs (as well as some of the older issues) are extremely volatile.
I don't want to go on too long since there are those on this line who are far more knowledgeable about the interesting Israeli market than I. Best of luck |
