TEHRAN - Head of Iran's Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) said the stock market has found a special place in the country's economy so that it is impacting other major areas like politics, IRNA reported.

Speaking at the 24th board meeting of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce Industries Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) on Tuesday, Mohammad-Ali Dehqan Dehnavi said: “The presence of people in the capital market has provided us with a new tool, and this new tool must be used to eliminate the shortcomings and financial problems of the industries active in this market.”

Stating that people have welcomed the stock exchange and invested major capital in this market, the official added: “The capital market has developed by the people’s presence, and along with it the role of this market in the country's economy has also expanded.”

Dehqan Dehnavi emphasized the fact that the decline in the stock market’s main index has not been an extraordinary incident and the trend of this market has been in line with other parallel markets in the country.

“The stock index has moved in line with other markets and the concept of "bubble" cannot be used for this market,” he said.

He further noted that comparing the stock market trend with the real economic growth in the country is not a valid comparison.

“When we discuss stock market and asset values, we are talking about nominal variables, so comparing a nominal variable with a real variable is a very incorrect comparison, because the value of assets is affected by many factors,” he explained.

Unprecedented fluctuations in the Iranian stock market over the past few months have raised concerns among shareholders, experts, and scholars leading them to call for the government to increase support for the market.

In early May, capital market analyst Rouzbeh Shariati said that TEDPIX, the main index of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), is going to improve over the next 1.5 months in comparison to the first 1.5 months of the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21).

Shariati believed reaching a possible agreement on the nuclear deal, the stability of the national currency, as well as the less attractive situation of the parallel markets are the important factors that would contribute to the improvement of the capital market.

EF/MA