Amid Iranian missile strike, Israeli stock market surges to 52-week high
New Delhi: In a striking display of investor confidence, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange surged to a 52-week high on Thursday, even after Iran launched a fresh missile attack targeting, among other places, the stock exchange building itself.
According to local media reports from Israel, Iran fired 25 missiles in a new wave of attacks early Thursday, damaging several sites, including the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange building.
Despite this direct hit, the Israeli stock market remained largely unaffected, with investors showing resilience amid escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.
The Tel Aviv All Share Index rose 0.5 per cent to reach 2,574, marking its highest level in the past 52 weeks.
Other major indices, such as the TA-35 and TA-125, were also trading in the green and hit their respective 52-week highs of 2,810 and 2,850.
The TA-125 Index, which represents the largest companies on the Israeli stock exchange, has shown strong gains since hostilities between Iran and Israel intensified on June 13.
The index has climbed nearly 5 per cent so far in June. In comparison, it had risen 6.55 per cent in May and 4.53 per cent in April -- reflecting sustained market optimism despite the geopolitical risks.
Reports also indicate that the Iranian missile strikes caused damage to a major hospital in southern Israel.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong warning to Iran, saying the Islamic Republic would 'pay a heavy price' for targeting Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant also confirmed that the Israeli military has been ordered to intensify its operations against Iran.
Meanwhile, an Iranian ballistic missile hit Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, Israel, seriously injuring several patients, doctors, and staff members.
In a post on X, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said, 'Soroka Hospital in Beersheba — where Jews, Muslims, Christians, and Arab Bedouins receive care — was just struck by an indiscriminate Iranian ballistic missile. Israel will continue to do what is necessary to protect all its people, from all walks of life.'
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Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Sheltering in a bunker, Iran's supreme leader names potential successors
Wary of assassination, Iran's supreme leader mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications to make it harder to find him, three Iranian officials familiar with his emergency war plans say. Ensconced in a bunker, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has picked an array of replacements down his chain of miliary command in case more of his valued lieutenants are killed. And in a remarkable move, the officials add, Ayatollah Khamenei has even named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, as well — perhaps the most telling illustration of the precarious moment he and his three-decade rule are facing. Ayatollah Khamenei has taken an extraordinary series of steps to preserve the Islamic Republic ever since Israel launched a series of surprise attacks last Friday. Though only a week old, the Israeli strikes are the biggest military assault on Iran since its war with Iraq in the 1980s, and the effect on the nation's capital, Tehran, has been particularly fierce. In only a few days, the Israeli attacks have been more intense and have caused more damage in Tehran than Saddam Hussein did in his entire eight-year war against Iran. Iran appears to have overcome its initial shock, reorganizing enough to launch daily counterstrikes of its own on Israel, hitting a hospital, the Haifa oil refinery, religious buildings and homes. Iran's top officials are also quietly making preparations for a wide range of outcomes as the war intensifies and as President Trump considers whether to enter the fight, according to the Iranian officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ayatollah's plans. Peering inside Iran's closely guarded leadership can be difficult, but its chain of command still seems to be functioning, despite being hit hard, and there are no obvious signs of dissent in the political ranks, according to the officials and to diplomats in Iran. Ayatollah Khamenei, 86, is aware tateither Israel or the United States could try to assassinate him, an end he would view as martyrdom, the officials said. Given the possibility, the ayatollah has made the unusual decision to instruct his nation's Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the supreme leader, to choose his successor swiftly from the three names he has provided. Normally, the process of appointing a new supreme leader could take months, with clerics picking and choosing from their own lists of names. But with the nation now at war, the officials said, the ayatollah wants to ensure a quick, orderly transition and to preserve his legacy. 'The top priority is the preservation of the state,' said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and professor of international affairs at Johns Hopkins University. 'It is all calculative and pragmatic.' Succession has long been an exceedingly delicate and thorny topic, seldom discussed publicly beyond speculations and rumors in political and religious circles. The supreme leader has enormous powers: He is the commander in chief of the Iran Armed Forces, as well as the head of the judiciary, the legislature and the executive branch. He is also a Vali Faqih, meaning the most senior guardian of the Shiite faith. Ayatollah Khamenei's son Mojtaba, also a cleric and close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who was rumored to be a front-runner, is not among the candidates, the officials said. Iran's former conservative president, Ibrahim Raisi, was also considered a front-runner before he was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024. Since the war started, Ayatollah Khamenei has delivered to the public two recorded video messages, against a backdrop of brown curtains and next to the Iranian flag. 'The people of Iran will stand against a forced war,' he said, vowing not to surrender. In normal times, Ayatollah Khamenei lives and works in a highly secure compound in central Tehran called the 'beit rahbari' — or leader's house — and he seldom leaves the premises, except for special occasions like delivering a sermon. Senior officials and military commanders come to him for weekly meetings, and speeches for the public are staged from the compound. His retreat to a bunker shows how furiously Tehran has been struck in a war with Israel that Iranian officials say is unfolding on two fronts. One is being waged from the air, with Israeli airstrikes on military bases, nuclear facilities, critical energy infrastructure, commanders and nuclear scientists in their apartment buildings in tightly packed residential neighborhoods. Some of Iran's top commanders were summarily wiped out. Hundreds of people have also been killed and thousands of others injured, with civilians slain across Iran, human rights groups inside and outside the country say. But Iranian officials say that they are fighting on a second front, as well, with covert Israeli operatives and collaborators scattered on the ground across Iran's vast terrain, launching drones at critical energy and military structures. The fear of Israeli infiltration among the top ranks of Iran's security and intelligence apparatus has rattled the Iranian power structure, even Ayatollah Khamenei, officials say. 'It is clear that we had a massive security and intelligence breach; there is no denying this,' said Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran's speaker of Parliament, Gen. Mohammad Ghalibaf, in an audio recording analyzing the war. 'Our senior commanders were all assassinated within one hour.' Iran's 'biggest failure was not discovering' the months of planning Israeli operatives had conducted to bring missiles and drone parts into the country to prepare for the attack, he added. The country's leadership has been preoccupied with three central concerns, officials say: an assassination attempt against Ayatollah Khamenei; the United States' entering the war; and more debilitating attacks against Iran's critical infrastructure, like power plants, oil and gas refineries and dams. Should the United States join the fight, the stakes would multiply significantly. Israel says that it wants to destroy Iran's nuclear program, but experts say that only the United States has the bomber — and the enormous 30,000-pound bomb — that might be capable of penetrating the mountain where Iran has built its most critical nuclear enrichment facilities, Fordo. Iran has threatened to retaliate by attacking American targets in the region, but that would only risk a wider, and possibly more devastating, conflict for Iran and its adversaries. The fear of assassination and infiltration within Iran's ranks is so widespread that the Ministry of Intelligence announced a series of security protocols, telling officials to stop using cellphones or any electronic devices to communicate. It has also ordered all senior government officials and military commanders to remain below ground, according to two Iranian officials. 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On Friday, the Supreme National Security Council took it a step further, announcing that anyone working with the enemy must turn themselves into the authorities by the end of the day on Sunday, hand over their military equipment and 'return to the arms of the people.' It warned that anyone discovered to be working with the enemy after Sunday would face execution. Tehran has largely emptied out after orders by Israel to evacuate several highly populated districts. Videos of the city show highways and desolate streets that are typically clogged with bumper-to-bumper traffic. In interviews, residents of Tehran who remained in the city said security forces had set up checkpoints on every highway, on smaller roads and at entry points in and out of the city to conduct ad hoc searches. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a reformist politician and a former vice president, said in a telephone interview from Tehran that Israel had miscalculated Iranians' reaction to the war. Mr. Abtahi said that the deep political factions that are typically in sharp disagreement with one another had rallied behind the supreme leader and focused the country on defending itself from an external threat. The war has 'softened the divisions we had, both among each other and with the general public,' Mr. Abtahi said. Israel's attacks have set off a resurgence of nationalism among many Iranians, inside and outside the country, including many critical of the government. That sense of common cause has emerged in a torrent of social media posts and statements by prominent human rights and political activists, physicians, national athletes, artists and celebrities. 'Like family, we may not always agree but Iran's soil is our red line,' wrote Saeid Ezzatollahi, a player with Iran's national soccer squad, Team Melli, on social media. 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This is an attack on our country, on Iran.' Narges Mohammadi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and the country's most prominent human rights activist, has spent decades in and out jail, pushing for democratic change in Iran. But even she warned against the attacks on her country, telling the BBC this past week that 'Democracy cannot come through violence and war.'
Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
Ukraine says received Russian bodies in war dead exchanges
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Time of India
16 minutes ago
- Time of India
As Routes Shift,Flight Fares Goon Steep Ascent
Air fares from India to several international destinations have risen sharply in the past month, travel companies said, potentially intensifying worries for travellers especially families looking to head out for the summer holidays. Airline operating costs are getting impacted by airspace closures due to the Israel-Iran conflict, forcing longer flight detours, and fuel price volatility, the companies said, adding lower seat capacity on certain routes is also weighing on the ticket prices. Fares could rise further if route diversions and impact on flight frequencies continue, the companies said. Europe is likely to see the sharpest fare hikes, especially for routes to France, Germany and UK, said Jatinder Paul Singh, global CEO of Viacation, a travel solutions provider. 'From India, airfares to Europe have gone up by 20–35% between March and July based on forward bookings data.' Longer Diversions | page 11 Singh also noted short-term fare hikes on flights to some destinations in the Middle East. 'In North Asia, Japan and South Korea have also become significantly more expensive to reach,' he said. A one way, non-stop Air France ticket for Delhi to Paris for July 1 costs about ₹64,000 on a popular travel portal. A one way, non-stop Air India ticket for Mumbai to Japan for the same date costs ₹101, 698 per adult on the same website. Ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia have resulted in temporary airspace restrictions, leading to longer flight durations on certain routes by two to four hours, increasing operational costs of airlines, and prompting 15-20% fare hikes on certain routes, said Bharatt Malik, senior VP, flights and hotel business at Yatra Online, an online travel company. Last week, Air India diverted or recalled around 16 flights on transatlantic and European routes as Iran closed its airspace after Israel launched an attack targeting its nuclear and military sites. The Iranian airspace currently remains shut to most international flights. A June 15 advisory by IndiGo, India's largest airline, said due to the airspace curbs, flight routes to and from the Gulf region were experiencing congestion which may cause delays on certain sectors. 'As we continue to operate via alternate paths, extended travel times may be expected,' the airline in a post on X. In an update on Thursday, Air India announced a temporary reduction in services operated by Boeing 787 and 777 aircraft from June 21 till at least July 15. The suspended routes include Delhi-Nairobi, Amritsar-London, Goa-London, while routes with reduced frequency include Delhi-Washington, Delhi-San Francisco, Delhi-Toronto, and Delhi-Tokyo. For some carriers, airfares for Dubai and Abu Dhabi are 10-15% higher from a month ago, while those to Japan and South Korea are 5-10% higher, said Abraham Alapatt, president and group head for marketing, service quality, value added services and innovation at travel company Thomas Cook (India). Industry insiders said the first wave of fare hikes started around late April, when Pakistan closed its airspace to Indian carriers. This affected many flights departing from north Indian cities, with reroutes adding up to three hours on some long-haul journeys. 'Subsequently, in mid-June, airspace closures over Iran, Iraq, and surrounding regions due to escalating conflict in the Middle East compounded the situation,' said Karan Agarwal, director at Cox & Kings. 'The dual impact of these disruptions has led to fare hikes of about 8–12% on Gulf-bound and short-haul international flights, while fares to Europe and North America have risen more sharply, by approximately 30–45% compared to earlier this year. These changes have unfolded gradually over a span of six to eight weeks, and pricing remains dynamic depending on route and carrier capacity,' he added. Increased flight duration, especially on long-haul routes connecting Europe, the Middle East, and the US, not only disrupts schedules but also raises operational costs like fuel, crew time, and landing charges inevitably pushing fares upwards, said Ravi Gosain, president of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO). 'Compounding this is the surge in crude oil prices, which directly impacts aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs. For international carriers, ATF can constitute up to 30–40% of operating expenses, making fare adjustments almost unavoidable,' he added. While airfares are expected to rise further given the surge in oil prices and longer flying times on account of airspace closures, the demand scenario will also have a role to play, said Ajay Prakash, VP, Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH). 'Combine that with the comparatively lower airfares that Air India is currently offering on some routes, we could have a very fluid situation and airfares in the same sector could differ significantly from day to day and flight to flight. But there is definitely pressure on airlines to increase fares to compensate for increased operating costs.'
