Equity markets in Tehran were in recess on Tuesday with trade volume dropping and equity indices struggling to take any direction.
Bullish bets slightly outpaced bearish ones in Tehran Stock Exchange and Iran Fara Bourse and both markets crept up slightly.
TSE’s benchmark index touched the 78,000-point mark in early trade, coming just shy of its highest in two years. The TEDPIX fell gradually afterwards and closed 0.15% higher than the day’s open at 77,663 points on Tuesday.
TSE’s trading volume dropped to 4.4 trillion rials, down 200 billion rials from Monday.
Ghadir Investment Company was the main riser of Tuesday’s trade on TSE. The giant holding’s shares surged 3.58% to 2,573 rials by the market close. Petrochemical producer Jam was the second market leader, rising 2.77% to 10,337 rials by the day’s close.
But the fall in Informatics Services Corporation and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines among others kept the market in a lull. ISC’s shares lost 3.53% and finished the day at 20,745 rials. The IRISL dropped 1.84% and finished at 5,980 rials.
Iran Fara Bourse, which usually outperforms TSE, was also calm. Its benchmark IFX edged up 0.16% and ended the day at 828.55 points.
However, IFB’s trade volume dropped markedly. Trade volume was almost halved on Tuesday at 2.1 trillion rials compared to more than 4 trillion rials of shares traded on Monday.
Tehran Oil Refining Company was the market leader, up 4.51% to 5,288 rials for the day, closely followed by Iranian Investment Petrochemical Group, up 4.74% to 1,656 rials. Shiraz and Lavan refineries were the other main risers.
Tehran Oil Refining Company surged from 4,600 rials on Monday’s opening to 5,288 rials on Tuesday’s close.
The events in Tehran were isolated from international developments. The recent recovery in riskier assets in global markets fizzled out on Tuesday, with a fall in stocks, oil and the value of China’s yuan currency boosting investor demand for safer assets such as the Japanese yen, government bonds and gold, Reuters reported.
Oil fell more than 2% and the main European stock indices fell as much as 1%, giving back some of their recent gains: oil rose more than 5% on Monday and world stocks recorded their biggest rise last week since early October.
Sterling recovered from its seven-year low against the dollar on Monday but struggled to make much headway as uncertainty over Britain’s membership of the European Union continued to swirl ahead of the June 23 referendum.
