TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian stock market kept surging to new high despite a dire situation in the country’s forex market where the national currency rial fell against major international currencies.
The Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) advanced on Monday with main index TEDPIX rising 3.13 percent to hit 1,341,532 points.
A total of 9.4 billion shares changed hands in 1.5 million exchanges in the TSE, bringing nearly 124 trillion rials ($650 million) to the market.
Mobarakeh Steel, Persian Gulf Petrochemicals and National Iranian Copper had the highest positive impact on TEDPIX on Sunday.
The main index at Iran Fara Bourse, a subsidiary of the TSE for trading securities and other financial instruments, also rose by 25 points to reach 14,715 points.
Booming trade at the TSE comes despite expectations outside Iran that the country would face a dire economic situation because of a continued drop in the value of the national currency rial.
Money exchange shops briefly traded the Iranian rial 200,000 for a dollar and later in the day, the currency was valued at 198,000 rials against the dollar. The lows were a new record after the rial on Saturday traded at 190,000 for the dollar.
The rial has tumbled from a rate of 32,000 rials to $1 at the time of the Iran 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The currency unexpectedly rallied after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the nuclear deal and reimpose crippling trade sanctions on Iran more than two years ago.
The sanctions have caused Iran’s oil exports, the country’s main source of income, to fall sharply.
The government, which maintains an official price of 42,000 for the rial against the dollar, says prices would return to normal once Iran gets hold of a series of funds blocked outside of the country because of the US sanctions.
First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri on Monday urged Iranian exporters to bring home their earnings from abroad. Last week, Jahangiri said Iran’s oil revenues have plummeted to $8 billion from $100 billion in 2011.
The Trade Ministry warned that it would revoke export licenses for those who fail to comply and bring the hard currency home while the Central Bank of Iran said on Sunday that it would publish the names of the violators.
Iranian companies export non-oil products in the value of more than 40 billion dollars a year, and officials say about half of that money stays abroad.
Press TV and AP contributed to this story.
- source : Iran Daily, Irannews
