The missile will be intercepted via Tel Aviv on June 20, 2025 after Iran fires a fresh salvo of missiles.
John Wessels | AFP | Getty Images
Israel’s stock market has been at a record high, seeing the greatest profits of every country in the Middle East in the 22-month war that began on October 7, 2023.
Israel is fighting a multifaceted war, maintaining the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of troops, usually part of the labor force, and is now facing charges of war crimes in international courts. Nevertheless, its economic landscape maintains buoyancy. It was lifted by the trust of new investors following a significant foreign investment and, more recently, a 12-day dispute with Iran.
Initially, the month after the Hamas attack in October and Israel’s declaration of war, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had rebounded and surpassed prewar levels by the first quarter of 2024.
The country’s GDP for the last quarter of 2023 has shrunk by nearly 20% after a deep contraction in private consumption and investment caused by the war. Nevertheless, the whole year ended with a moderate growth rate of 2%, with an additional 1% GDP growth in 2024, driven primarily by government spending. In June this year, the OECD projected growth of 4.9% in Israel’s economic activity in 2026.
“In 2024, approximately 161,000 new trading accounts were opened in the Israeli capital market,” the July report issued on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange website states. That number represents a jump of three times the number of accounts opened compared to 2023.
The report added that 87,000 more new trading accounts were opened in the first half of 2025, of which around 33,000 were with investors.
“While 2023 was marked by considerable uncertainty, there is already a possibility that trend reversals will be identified in 2024. The public has used the low prices of Tase’s index to expand their involvement in capital markets, open trading accounts and enter the local capital markets.
Avi Hasson, CEO of Israel’s Startup Nation Central, has evaluated many factors that will boost investors’ confidence in Israel.
“As a result of what’s been happening over the past 22 months, global investors now look at the Middle East, particularly Israel, and “the risks facing Israel’s security and economy are actually diminishing,” Husson told CNBC’s Access Middle East.
Last year, Israel was able to significantly reduce the capabilities of its enemies, particularly Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and the conflict with Iran in June was widely seen as having, with the help of the US, a major blow to Tehran’s ability to hurt the Jewish state.
Investors “when they try to see the foundations of the Israeli economy, more specifically the high-tech market, its dynamism, its capabilities, its baby boom, its creation,” Husson said.
Israel’s high-tech sector is to thank many of the nation’s economic success. High-tech products and services account for 20% of Israel’s GDP and 56% of international exports, according to Hasson.
Since the start of the war, its defense sector has attracted even more attention from abroad, even in the Arab world. One visible example is the robust presence of Israeli defense companies at the Idex Defense Exhibition in Abu Dhabi this February.
Foreign investment has also played a major role in boosting Israel’s stock market and real estate sector.
In May alone, foreign investors purchased around 2.5 billion shekels ($743 million) in Tase stock, according to Israeli news outlet Ynet. Since its launch in 2025, it reported that total foreign acquisitions have reached approximately 9.1 billion shekels, or $2.7 billion.
Also, the Israeli central bank said unpaid liabilities to foreign investors increased by approximately $27.5 billion (approximately 5.2%) in the fourth quarter and increased to approximately $554 billion at the end of the quarter. The increase was “mainly due to a combination of a rise in the price of Israeli securities held by non-residents and a continuing flow of net investment in Israel by non-residents.”
Meanwhile, Israeli Shekels won nearly 7% against the US dollar following the Israeli-Iran conflict in June, but S&P Global Market intelligence expects to fall into central bank target rates by the third quarter of 2025, potentially paving the way for further monetary easing.
