TEHRAN- Over 637,597 tons of commodities valued at $1.595 billion were traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) in the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday).

According to the report from IME International Affairs and Public Relations Department, last week, on the domestic and export metal and mineral trading floor of IME, 293,318 tons of various products worth $966 million were traded.

On this trading floor, 256,256 tons of steel, 6,400 tons of aluminum, 4,140 tons of copper, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrates, 12 tons of precious metal concentrates, 25,390 tons of zinc ingot 1,500 tons of coke as well as five kg of gold bullion were traded by customers.

The report declares that on domestic and export oil and petrochemical trading floors of IME, 337,269 tons of different commodities with the total value of $629 million were traded.

On this trading floor, 72,200 tons of VB feed stock, 110,601 tons of bitumen, 68,694 tons of polymer products, 42,229 tons of chemical products, 43,990 tons of lube cut oil, 1,705 tons of insulation, 2,301 tons of base oil, 150 tons of argon as well as 5,050 tons of sulfur were traded.

Furthermore, 6,510 tons of commodities and a commercial property were traded on the same trading floor. 

As previously reported, more than 2.787 million tons of commodities worth over $5.368 billion have been traded at the IME in August.

Meanwhile, commercial property was offered at the IME’s side market for the first time on August 19.

Also on August 21, the IME director of economic studies announced, “The exchange will start preselling trades of residential units via standard parallel salaf bonds by the next month.”

Javad Fallah said, “IME is seeking attraction of liquidity by the capital market to provide financing for the construction of houses; so, we are intending to offer salaf bonds to achieve this goal”.

The official said that the IME has received the salaf bonds from Housing Investment Company, which is affiliated to Bank Maskan (Housing Bank).

These bonds enable the people to pre-purchase the residential units based on the amount of their money.

A standard parallel salaf is an Islamic contract similar to futures, with the difference being that the contract’s total price must be paid in advance. 

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran's over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

On April 21, IME Managing Director Hamed Soltani-Nejad unveiled the market's new outlook plan, which depicts IME's development roadmap until the Iranian calendar year of 1404 (March 20205-March 2026). Materializing the slogan of this Iranian year, which is “Surge in Production” is seriously considered in the mentioned plan and it is, in fact, the strategic approach of the outlook plan.

MA/MA