The ballot count is still incomplete, but the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange has already delivered an uncomfortable reaction. Sharp declines were recorded in morning trading as the count reached 66.2% of votes, putting a distinctly sour market backdrop behind the emerging election picture. For Benjamin Netanyahu, it is hardly the reception he would want: the phrase “TASE votes against Netanyahu” captures the political interpretation of that sell-off, even if share prices cannot tell us precisely why every investor pressed the sell button.
The currency market provides a revealing comparison, although the timing matters. During Election Day, before the subsequent reversal as results arrived, the dollar weakened by about 2% to around 3.02 shekels, its lowest level in roughly a month, while the euro fell to around 3.37. Compared with Friday’s levels of 3.11 shekels per dollar and 3.48 per euro, those lows represented declines of approximately 2.9% and 3.2%, respectively. A substantial part of the dollar’s gains over the preceding month had disappeared within two trading days. Those figures describe the earlier shekel rally; they should not be mistaken for fresh exchange-rate quotations accompanying the stock-market declines.
The contrast is politically awkward: the shekel strengthened before the electoral picture became clearer, then reversed course as the results emerged, while shares fell in the morning session. Reading this as a rebuke to Netanyahu is an argument about that sequence, rather than proof of a single cause. Yet the selling does puncture the idea of an immediate market celebration. Winning seats and winning investors’ confidence are separate achievements, and the next test will come with the coalition negotiations and the economic choices that follow.