TEHRAN- TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), dropped 8,855 points to 1.322 million on Sunday.

As reported, over 4.799 billion securities worth 22.403 trillion rials (about $80 million) were traded at the TSE.

The first market’s index lost 6,617 points, and the second market’s index fell 17,422 points.

Unprecedented fluctuations in the Iranian stock market over the past few months have led shareholders, experts, and scholars to call for the government to increase its support for the market.

Following the rising concerns over the market conditions, in early April, the Government Economic Coordination Headquarters, in its 216th meeting, approved some new directives for regulating the stock market.

Also, Head of Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) Majid Eshqi, in a letter to First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, has outlined eight major challenges that the Iranian stock market is currently facing, Tasnim news agency reported on September 26.

According to Eshqi, increasing interest rates which has resulted in the withdrawal of liquidity from the capital market, decreasing the profit margin of companies due to the increase in the prices of feed and energy carriers, dictated pricing of products, carrying out the transactions of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) at the energy exchange, fluctuation in forex rate, transfer of shares in major auto companies, making decisions for export-oriented companies without considering macroeconomic consequences and cutting electricity in summer and gas shortage in winter are the major challenges impacting the performance of the stock market.

In this letter, Eshqi has also included some suggestions for managing uncertainties in the stock market.

Stabilizing bank interest rates, removing the European hub rate from the pricing formula of feed and fuel, eliminating dictated pricing, making the financial relations between the government and economic enterprises more transparent, and depositing the remaining resources allocated by the National Development Fund to the Market Stabilization Fund are some of the suggestions made by the SEO head for boosting the stock market performance.

MA/MA