With 99.5 percent of the ballots counted, the YNet news site reported Wednesday morning that Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party had captured 29 or 30 of the 120 seats in Parliament, sweeping past his chief rival, the center-left Zionist Union alliance, which got 24 seats.

Mr. Netanyahu and his allies had seized on earlier exit polls that showed a slimmer Likud lead to create an aura of inevitability, and celebrated with singing and dancing. While his opponents vowed a fight, Israeli political analysts agreed even before most of the ballots were counted that he had the advantage, with more seats having gone to the right-leaning parties likely to support him.

 

Eoin Treacy's view

Like him or loathe him, Mr Netanyahu has been democratically re-elected which is not something that can said for the vast majority of the countries in the region. This has been a news heavy day with the Fed’s announcement seeing some unwinding of the Dollar’s outperformance relative to just about every currency. The rally by the Shekel may be interpreted as benefitting from both news items, not least as the Dollar is at an area of previous resistance. 

The Tel Aviv 100 Index continues to extend its medium-term uptrend. While somewhat overbought in the short term, a sustained move below the 1300 area would be required to question medium-term scope for additional upside.