Stocks End Week at Record Highs

Tehran Stock Exchange’s Benchmark index gained 1,323 points or 1.7% during the week that ended December 7 to end at a nine-month high of 81,341.

IFX, the over-the-counter Iran Fara Bourse’s main index, added 31.8 points or 3.8% to end at a two-year high of 862.7.

Trading at the two exchanges begins on Saturday and ends on Wednesday.

Close to 5 billion shares valued at $371.2 million were traded in TSE during the past week. The number of traded shares and weekly trade value surged 120% and 94% compared to the previous week.

According to TSE's chief executive, Hassan Qalibaf-Asl, trading has picked up on Tehran Stock Exchange despite its flat performance so far this year.

"Returns are not the only criteria for reviewing the stock market's performance. Liquidity and trade volume are more important in the stock market and they have grown compared to last year," he was quoted as saying by ILNA.

"During the past seven months, trade volume has risen 70%. It was 200 trillion rials for the same period last year but has reached 380 trillion rials now."

The First Market Index rose by 1,319 points or 2.3% to end at 58,005.

The Second Market Index added 648 points or 0.38% to close at 171,603.

At IFB, more than 1.6 billion securities valued at $185.1 million were traded in 97,000 transactions. The number of traded shares and weekly trade value jumped 168% and 68% compared to the week before.

IFB's market cap won $269.7 million or 1.1% to reach $24.9 billion.

IFB’s First Market witnessed the trading of 424 million securities valued at $26.7 million, indicating a 316% and 293% surge in the number of traded securities and trade value respectively.

About 543 million securities valued at $43.3 million were traded in the Second Market, indicating a 232% and 137% growth respectively.

The ‘base metals’ group of IFB-listed industries had the highest weekly rise in share value (37%), which was followed by ‘Chemical products’ (9%) and ‘transportation, storage and communications’ (7%).

The suspension in the trading of bank shares grabbed the headlines of stock market news last week. The Central Bank of Iran wants lenders to start absorbing the losses they have swept under the rug.

Lenders and their shareholders are killing time looking for some miracle bailout and a way to avoid posting losses. They are calling for government backing to ease the pain but the government’s pockets are empty. In the resulting deadlock, most bank shares have not traded since mid-June and their symbols are frozen.