TEHRAN- TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), lost 30,000 points, or two percent, in the past Iranian calendar week.

The index closed at 1.52 million points on Wednesday (the last working day of the week).

During the past week, the indices of National Iranian Copper Company, Mobarakeh Steel Company, Social Security Investment Company, Isfahan Oil Refinery, Bandar Abbas Oil Refinery, and Barekat Pharmaceutical Group were the most widely followed indices.

Iran’s new Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Ehsan Khandouzi has underlined the capital market as one the major priorities of his ministry during his tenure, outlining the programs for improving this market.

As ISNA reported, increasing the role of the capital market in financing production companies and projects, diversifying financial instruments in the capital market, eliminating unnecessary regulations and barriers, facilitating the entry of companies into the stock market, reducing the cost of issuing bonds by facilitating relevant regulations, canceling monopolies and facilitating licensing for stock market-related services such as portfolio management, marketing and brokerage, reforming corporate governance to manage conflict of interest between major and minor stakeholders and finally providing incentives for people to invest indirectly in the capital market have been mentioned as the major programs that the economy ministry is going to pursue in order to improve the capital market.

According to Khandouzi, the stock market is one of the most important pillars of the economy as it will play a significant role in financing government projects and supporting economic growth.

The minister had previously mentioned financing the government and ensuring economic growth as the main priorities of the Economy Ministry during his tenure.

"The main responsibility of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs is to finance the government and ensure economic development using sustainable, safe, and low-risk methods," Khandouzi said on Thursday, the first day of his work as economy minister.

MA/MA