The Israeli shekel strengthened as much as 1.6% against the dollar before giving away some of the gains to trade 0.7% higher by 1315 GMT. Tel Aviv's main 125 stock index rose 1.4% compared to a 0.7% drop across the wider emerging markets index . "The shekel is the best performing emerging market currency on the back of local media reporting that PM Netanyahu may halt the process of implementing the controversial judiciary reform following another wave of protests over the weekend," said Piotr Matys, senior FX analyst at In Touch Capital Markets. Protests spread overnight across Israel following Netanyahu's announcement that he had dismissed Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for opposing the plans. An official in Netanyahu's Likud party and another source closely involved in the legislation said the government would suspend the overhaul. But an expected statement by Netanyahu on Monday morning announcing a suspension was postponed as he met heads of the parties in his nationalist-religious coalition. Top officials at Israel's Finance Ministry last week warned that the plan could seriously harm the economy, according to documents seen by Reuters, citing unease among foreign investors and a shekel that has depreciated sharply to a three-year low. "It's perhaps too early to declare that the shekel is out of the woods," Matys added. "Halting legislation is not the same as deciding not to implement it." (Reporting by Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru and Karin Strohecker in London, editing by Mark Heinrich)
@BansariKamdar;)) March 27 (Reuters) - Israel's currency and stocks
rallied on rising expectations that Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu will halt his bitterly contested plans to overhaul the
judiciary as protests in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem intensified.
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