Austria’s Ambassador Tours Tehran Stock Exchange

Austria’s ambassador to Iran visited the Tehran Stock Exchange on Monday, news outlets reported. 
Stefan Sholz and his delegation toured TSE’s trading floor and conferred with the TSE CEO Ali Sahraee. 
Accompanied by the head of Iran-Austria Joint Chamber of Commerce, Pedram Soltani, they rang the trading opening bell at the floor in a symbolic gesture, according to the TSE official website. 
Sahraee briefed the Austrian envoy and IAJCC team on the structure and operations of Iran’s capital market, TSE history and investment procedures.
He outlined the conditions of investment by foreigners in the bourse, stressing TSE’s interest in collaborating with overseas investment firms. 
“In line with its policy of expanding international cooperation, the TSE has signed 12 memorandums of understanding with foreign exchange markets,” he said.   
In a recent case, Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran and the Iraqi Securities Commission signed an MoU in late July to create a joint investment fund. 
On the sidelines of the meeting, Soltani referred to the mutual trust in the long trade relations between two nations. 
Commending the normal two-way ties, he said, “Austria is among the few European countries with which Iran has had least disruption in ties”. 
Asked if the rare visit could lead to cooperation on the ground, Soltani told ISNA, “Given the high capacity of Austrian partners, we are optimistic about the results of such interaction.”
While most Iranian markets have been dominated by bearish trends, the capital market has been flourishing over the past year as many investors left parallel markets and channeled money into the stock market. 
It is reported that the total market capitalization of Iran’s four bourses (Tehran Stock Exchange, Iran Fara Bourse, Iran Mercantile Exchange and Iran Energy Exchange) reached 12,282 trillion rials ($102 billion) by the end of third Persian month to June 21 – up 106.5% compared to the corresponding period in the last fiscal year that ended on March 20. 
The TSE was the top performer during the period with a market cap of 9,091 trillion rials ($75.7 billion), up 8.4% monthly and 31% compared to figures reported for the beginning of the present fiscal year on March 21. 
Additionally, in a rating by the World Federation of Exchanges, the TSE topped the list of best-performing stock markets in 2018 in terms value of trades.