Tehran Stock Exchange Closes Week With 1.5% Return

EghtesadOnline: Tehran Stock Exchange closed the first week of winter with a positive return. TSE’s main index, TEDPIX, stood at the level of 158,000 points on Wednesday, up 2,000 points compared with the last trading day of the previous week, indicating 1.5% return.

News ID: ۷۸۴۴۳۱

29 December 2018

Within five working days a total of 34 billion rials ($ 309,000) worth of stocks was traded in 644,000 deals that show 36% rise compared to the corresponding period in the previous week.

The market's performance turned positive as details about the next year's budget bill (2019-20) unveiled on Tuesday and investors could grasp a better picture of future performance of listed companies in the wake of monthly reports on earnings.

President Hassan Rouhani submitted the budget bill for fiscal 2019-20 to parliament on Tuesday. Iran’s proposed state budget for the coming year points to a decline in revenues in rial terms, as US sanctions continue to bite, Financial Tribune reported.

Rouhani said that special attention should be given to the capital market and in its financing role next year.

TSE witnessed a shift of ownership in shares during the previous week by institutions and legal entities giving way to retail investors.

It is worthy of mention that institutions and legal entities dominated the market for the last four weeks and shift of trend in favor of retail investors indicates that they may regain the upper hand in the market.

Retail investors registered their demands mainly for bank stocks. Also, pharmaceutical, computer, and paper products were their next purchase targets.

Bank stocks have been a darling of investors as revaluation of lenders' assets has prompted excitement about their state. Bank Mellat and Tejarat Bank in particular boosted the index.

However the extraordinary demand for bank shares, driven by prospects of capital increase in the wake of their asset revaluation, is fueling concern among analysts that the reckonings are overoptimistic given the structural problems of the banking system.

According to Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani reforms to the banking law proposed by the government to overhaul the dysfunctional banking system has been reviewed in  relevant commissions and is awaiting a final  vote in the chamber.

The bills were sent to the Majlis more than a year ago. The Banking Reform Bill that would replace the current decades-old Usury-Free Banking Law, among other things, outlines new procedures for banks and credit institutions to obtain license from the CBI.