Tehran Stock Exchange Weekly Trade Up 56%

EghtesadOnline: The Tehran Stock Exchange registered a stellar performance during the week to March 13, with the benchmark index TEDPIX increasing 6,289 points compared to the previous week.

News ID: ۷۸۴۵۷۳

16 March 2019

According to the TSE website, the First Market index soared 5,010 points to finish at 127,223 and the Second Market index had a growth of 10,741 points to close at 324,354. The First Market and the Second Market indexes were up 4.10% and 3.43% week-on-week.

The value of trade during the five working days reached 51.8 trillion rials ($39.84 million), posting a growth of 56% compared to the previous week.

During the week 14.44 billion securities were traded in more than 1.15 million instances with the figure posting 24% growth, Financial Tribune reported.

Trading value for Exchange Traded Funds during the week amounted to more than 2.7 trillion rials ($20.7 million) which marked a whopping 94% growth. The number of trading for ETFs totaled 239 million which also had a notable growth of 102%.

The debt market was also abuzz with activity with 7.6 million securities worth 7.6 trillion rials changing hands during the week.

Iran's main stock index ended Wednesday's session close to a resistance level that it has held for close to four months, boosted by continued gains for the biggest commodity shares.

The TEDPIX Index on TSE advanced for a fifth straight session, extending its winning streak for the whole week. TEDPIX grew 1,205.84 points or 0.72% to close at 169,115.5 points. The market crossed the 170,000 threshold last November.

Among the main reasons for the weekly rally were robust activity in global markets, boom in commodity prices, increased trade on Iran Mercantile Exchange and speculation that the government might be on the verge of unifying the multiple exchange rates.

Weekly Highlights

Reviewing the most important events of the past week for Iran's capital market, the Securities and Exchange News Agency reported more details about the merger of five banks affiliated to the armed forces.

The chief of SEO said last week that the Securities and Exchange High Council, the highest capital market decision-making body, had issued the permit for selling the shares of the five lenders in after-hours trading.

According to Shapoor Mohammadi, shares are to be sold at the maximum nominal price or at prices quoted at the time their symbols were frozen - whichever is higher.

Shareholders can either sell their shares to other entities or await reports from judicial assessors on the loss/profit accounts of the merging banks.

Another boost for the capital market came amid speculation that the government is likely to change course on its controversial and costly subsidy policy for basic goods.

The development is expected to help food and plastic manufacturers that depend on imports and must sell at the cheap rate of 42,000 rials per USD. The government has earmarked $14 billion for that purpose in the 2019-20 fiscal budget.