nun bet

The Invest in Israel series has been getting some link love in recent weeks. It’s been featured on Israelity - here and here.

If you’re new to the Invest in Israel series, you can get some background information from this post that launched the series. In short, I have two stock simulations running. One game (Invest in Israel) is tracking an $1000 investment divided about equally among eight stocks. In the other game (First Israel Fund Game), I have invested almost $1000 in the First Israel Fund which is a “non-diversified, closed-end management investment company that seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in Israeli securities.”

So, are happy days here again or are we having stormy weather? Read on!

Invest in Israel Game: The value of the game dipped a little this week. Over all this group of stocks is up 4.24% since the start of the game. The big gainer this week is Fundtech Ltd. which is up 12.30% since the start of the game.

First Israel Fund Game: This fund continues it’s steady upward climb and is posting a gain since the start of the game of 8.6%.

One of the companies that I “purchased” in the Invest in Israel game is Elbit Systems Ltd. They’ve been performing pretty well and are currently up 6.28% since the start of the game. According to their site, Elbit Systems Ltd:

Elbit Systems develops, manufactures and integrates advanced, high-performance defense electronic and electro-optic systems for customers throughout the world. Our major activities include command, control, communication, computer and intelligence (C4I) systems and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) systems for defense and homeland security applications. We also perform upgrade programs for airborne, ground and naval defense platforms, often as a prime contractor, and supply advanced turnkey Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV) systems.

In other investment news, sales of Israeli startups have reached $3.2 billion for 2006. According to this article, Fifty-seven Israeli high-tech companies were sold this year for over USD 9 billion, shows a study conducted by Yedioth Ahronoth through the IVC ONLINE information services.

While hi-tech, military, and pharmaceutical companies in Israel seem to get a lot of investment interest, more traditional markets are also expanding in Israel. Agricultural exports have been a big part of Israel’s economy for years (Jaffa orange, anyone?!). According to this report, Israel has moved into second place in persimmon exports, right behind Spain. The persimmon groves total area in Israel is about 17,500 dunams (about 4,000 acres). The annual crop is about 35,000 tons, and the annual export comes to about 16,000 tons.