Tehran Stock Exchange experienced another week of minor changes, as the TSE All-Share Index slipped by 0.2% to close at 62,734.
The index started the week at 62,889 and never reached the 63,000 level, which was last recorded on November 18 and the index has been trading below this mark ever since.
Mobile Telecommunications Co. of Iran, Esfahan Oil Refinery, Parsian Oil & Gas Development Co. and also Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Co. were the main movers of TEDPIX for the week, despite its narrow daily fluctuations.
Slight decreases during the last two weeks have eliminated the advantage of the index to its 50-day exponential moving average. In terms of technical analysis, TEDPIX is already standing in a supportive area. If the current support is broken, this can instigate the index’s fall toward the next support level at 61,500.
However, since the current trade volume is considerably low, we can expect a sudden turn in the direction of the main index’s chart. Particularly, chart study patterns are still offering the possibility of having a long-term uptrend toward the 75,000 level, global online currency trading portal FXstreet reported in its latest edition of Iran Weekly Market Report.
The index of the 30 largest companies by market capitalization, the TSE 30 index, slipped by 0.5% as it closed at 2,658 on Wednesday. Experts believe the fragile commodities prices globally have affected the major companies listed on the TSE.
Companies in the metal and mining industries hold 11% of the TSE 30’s total market capitalization, while the share of companies in the oil products and chemical industries is 6% and 33% respectively.
Nevertheless, Informatics Services Corporation rose by 3.6% this week, as it closed at 15,442 rials (approximately 43 cents), reminding investors of its incredible performance during recent years.
Also, the average daily trade volume of the market has surged to $42 million, which is 78% higher than the previous week. However, it should be considered that the trade volume is inflated by a large volume of block trades and also a supply of $46 million worth of Istisna sukuk on Monday.
In total, the highest weekly traded value belongs to Azarab Industries Co., Mellat Bank and Iran Polyacryl with trade volumes of $7.5, $6.0 and $5.9 million respectively. The share price of Azarab Industries Co. closed at 3,067 rials (approximately 8.5 cents), demonstrating a weekly growth of 7.5%. Mellat Bank’s share price rose only by 0.7% as it closed at 1,950 rials (approximately 5.4 cents), while Iran Polyacryl’s share price plunged by 13.9% to close at 2,371 rials (approximately 6.6 cents).
Iran Fara Bourse
Iran Fara Bourse’s all-share index IFX dropped 9.7 points or 1.4% compared to the previous trading week to end at 692.
According to IFB, over 1.1 billion securities changed hands in 62,000 transactions valued at over $151.7 million.
Weekly trade volume and value recorded a 12% and 16% jump compared to the previous week respectively, while the number of transactions declined by 4%. Furthermore, IFB’s market cap was set back 0.9% to end the week at $22.7 billion.
The First Market witnessed the trading of 179 million securities valued at $12.7 million to record a 200% and 138% rise in volume and value respectively compared to the previous trading week. The Second Market, however, did not fare just as well and recorded the transaction of 227 million securities valued at over $15.5 million, indicating a 12% and 25% decline respectively.
Base metals with a 15% share of the weekly market trade topped the charts among weekly gainers and were followed by banks and credit institutions and oil products with 12% and 11% respectively.
Currency Exchange
The Central Bank of Iran announced the official rate of dollar-rial at 30,028, 0.2% higher than last week. This is while the free market rate of the US dollar reached 35,756 rials by recording a 0.45% increase.
The official euro-rial rate slipped by 0.61%, reaching 31,897 rials, while the free market rate increased by 0.89% to 38,626 rials.
The British pound official rate has been announced at 45,423 rials which is 0.85% lower than last week’s price. In contrast, its free market rate gained 0.27%, reaching 54,700 rials.
Private Construction
Furthermore, the Central Bank of Iran’s latest annual report on private construction activities in cities shows that the number of projects has dropped by 19%, standing at 157,631 in the last Iranian year (ended March 20, 2015).
These new projects have a total area of 94 million square meters. The average construction costs per square meter for the projects has been reported to be 7.9 million rials (approximately $221), which is 19% higher than the previous year. Most of the new projects have been started in Tehran, Isfahan and Fars provinces, as these areas have absorbed 13%, 11% and 7% of the projects respectively.
Also, the number of completed buildings has been reported at 196,938, which is 10% lower than the previous year. In addition, the figure for average construction costs per square meter has recorded a 20% increase, reaching 6.24 million rials (approximately $174).
According to the report, total investment in construction projects by private investors has grown by 7.5% compared to the previous year, reaching 810,563 billion rials (approximately $22.6 billion).
