TEHRAN- TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), lost 36,553 points to 1.391 million on Tuesday.

As reported, over 6.631 billion securities worth 53.9 trillion rials (about $1.283 billion) were traded at the TSE.

The first market’s index lost 32,020 points, and the second market’s index dropped 57,330 points.

After several days of drops, TEDPIX climbed 7,279 points to 1.427 million on Monday.

Over 6.251 billion securities worth 43.734 trillion rials (about $1.041 billion) were traded at the TSE on Monday.

The first market’s index rose 5,688 points and the second market’s index gained 13,556 points. 

TEDPIX lost 38,000 points, or 2.5 percent, to 1.488 million in the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday).

During the past week, the indices of State Retirement Fund, Social Security Investment Company, Sepid Makian Company, Behsaz Kashaneh Tehran Company, and Barekat Pharmaceutical Group were the most widely followed indices.

It’s over two years that stock market in Iran has been playing an outstanding role in the attraction of the people’s investment.

Iranian people, who used to invest their money in some traditional ways such as buying gold, or deposit money in the banks, have taken a new approach for investment over the past two years, as they have been investing more and more in the stock market.

The rising number of new shareholders in Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), which is Iran’s major stock exchange, is an indication of this new approach.

Different factors have created such condition, among them it could be referred to the efforts made by the stock market to attract people’s more investment through laying the proper ground, for example via introducing new financial instruments, and also by making people more acquainted with this market.

The other factor is the government’s policy and new approach toward the stock market, and putting emphasis on this market’s role in funding and economic growth.

The status of the parallel markets such as forex, housing, and gold markets has also made stock market a more attractive place for the people to invest in.

Meanwhile, the government’s policy of lowering the interest rate of the bank deposits has redirected a huge amount of people’s investment to the stock market.

In a recent interview, a director in Iran Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) has announced that the fixed income funds have lagged the banks behind in attracting the people’s investment.

Saying that the risk of investing in the fixed income funds is very low and these funds now pay regular returns to investors at good rates, Meysam Fadaei, the SEO’s director for supervising the financial entities, underlined that these funds are one of the largest mutual funds that have been welcomed by the people, and some of them have even grown more than some banks and attracted more capital.

“Now, for example, one of the fixed income funds has succeeded in attracting people’s investment three times more than a private bank (Middle East Bank) and another fund twice as much as another private bank (Post Bank)”, he stated.

Announcing that over 5.3 quadrillion rials (about $126.19 billion) has been already attracted by the mutual funds, Fadaei said that the fixed income funds, which pay more interest than banks, account for attracting 3.7 quadrillion rials (about $88.095 billion) of the mentioned figure.

Iran’s new Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Ehsan Khandouzi has previously underlined the capital market as one of the major priorities of his ministry during his tenure.

MA/MA