Tel Aviv Stock Exchange may still be housed in the same old office block, but according to the bourse’s chief executive it is “in a totally different place than it was last year”.

Since January, Ester Levanon has presided over a one-third rise in the exchange’s main index, pulled off the biggest initial public offering in Israel’s history and agreed closer links with Nasdaq, the US market, and the London Stock Exchange. The year also saw Tel Aviv promoted to “developed status” by the FTSE group, putting Israel’s capital market on an equal footing with the leading bourses in North America and Europe.