RAMALLAH, January 29 (JMCC) - The Israeli stock market saw its greatest single-day decline since May on Sunday, after widespread unrest in Egypt.
The companies hardest hit,
reported Reuters, were those responsible for the transfer of Egyptian gas to its western neighbor.
Most Israeli companies have no exposure to Egypt. Those that do have seen their shares slide, led by a 14 percent drop in Ampal American Israel Corp (AMPL.TA: Quote).
Ampal owns 12.5 percent of East Mediterranean Gas (EMG), a joint Egyptian-Israeli company that supplies an estimated 2.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Israel.
EMG last month signed agreements worth as much as $10 billion to sell gas to five Israeli companies, including Oil Refineries (ORL.TA: Quote) whose shares were down 4.4 percent.
Israel Chemicals (ICL) (ICL.TA: Quote), which also signed a deal to buy gas from EMG for one of its power plants, was down 3 percent. Israel Corp (ILCO.TA: Quote), the parent of both ICL and Oil Refineries, was 3.8 percent lower.
As part of the deal, Israel Corp has an option in coming weeks to buy more gas from EMG. Analysts said Israeli companies will turn to firms developing gas at the Tamar site off Israel's coast.