The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said on Tuesday a report by U.S. researchers suggesting there were investors in Israel who may have profited from prior knowledge of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack was inaccurate and its publication irresponsible
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Interior building. Stock large Display © Mena Today
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange said on Tuesday a report by U.S. researchers suggesting there were investors in Israel who may have profited from prior knowledge of Hamas' Oct. 7 attack was inaccurate and its publication irresponsible.
Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr. from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares – when investors bet on share prices to fall – leading up to the attacks, which triggered Israel's ongoing war with Hamas.
The activity, they said, "exceeded the short-selling that occurred during numerous other periods of crisis" such as the 2008 financial crisis and COVID-19.
But the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) said the authors miscalculated, since share prices are listed in agorot, which are similar to cents and pence, rather than shekels – putting the potential short sale profit at just 32 million shekels.
Israel's securities regulator said it had been aware of the report for a week and was in contact with the researchers, but declined to comment while it investigates the TASE's rebuttal.
($1 = 3.7243 shekels)
Reporting by Steven Scheer Editing by Mark Potter
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