SEO Approves Measures to Shore Up Bourse

The Securities and Exchange Organization’s board members convened the first session presided by the newly-appointed CEO Mohammad Ali Dehqan-Dehnavi to help reinforce the collapsing stock market. 
Among the measures approved by the stock market regulator to boost the demand side was a decision to allow the Capital Market Stabilization Fund, a fund created to help resolve the credit crunch in the bourse, to issue put options worth 30 trillion rials ($125 million). 
The measure is in line with efforts to prevent the further depreciation of stock prices, particularly in blue chips, Securities and Exchange News Agency reported.  
A put option is a financial market derivative instrument that gives the holder the right to sell an asset at a specified price (the strike) by a specified date. Put options are most commonly used to protect against a fall in the price of a stock below a specified price.