Israeli foreign currency bonds issued overseas by the government will be listed for trading in Tel Aviv as well as abroad, the Finance Ministry and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) said on Wednesday, Trend reports with reference to Reuters.
The listings will make it easier for investors to trade in the bonds, with transparency and at relatively lower costs than before, they said in a joint statement.
It will "expand the variety of products that are available for trading on TASE, enhance the liquidity of the government bonds and allow local and international investors, for the first time, access to these global products as part of the continuous and transparent trading on TASE," said TASE chief executive Ittai Ben Zeev.
As part of its debt raising programme, Israel currently has 23 government bond series issued abroad -- 13 denominated in dollars, seven in euros, two in Japanese yen and one in British pounds.
In its first phase, six of those series -- three each of dollar and euro denominated bonds -- totalling $4 billion and 7 billion euros ($8.15 billion) will be listed for trade in Tel Aviv beginning Oct. 31.
Trading in the global bonds will be carried out in shekels, while the anticipated interest payments to the holders of the bonds will be made in the currency in which the bond is denominated.
Yahli Rotenberg, Israel's Accountant General at the Finance Ministry, said the aim of the move was to advance Israel's capital markets and is expected to encourage liquidity and transparency and reinforce the investor base of Israeli Government bonds.