In a report examining the performance of businesses operating in the stock market, the Central Securities Depositary of Iran has released the list of top industries in terms of their trading value during the sixth fiscal month ending Sept. 22.
The report, published on CSDI’s website, indicates that finance securities emerged as the biggest industry with a trade value of 85.91 trillion rials ($753.61 million) during the month.
Exchange-traded funds ranked second with a trade value of 78.66 trillion rials ($690 million).
An ETF owns underlying assets (shares, stocks, bonds, oil futures, gold bullion and foreign currency) and divides the ownership of those assets into shares.
Holding multiple underlying assets rather than just one, an ETF can own hundreds or thousands of stocks across various industries, or it could be active in one particular industry or sector.
Base metals industry stood at third place with a trade value of 53.24 trillion rials ($467.07 million).
This was followed by automotive industry, banks and credit institutions, as well as chemical producers.
The next four were pharmaceutical, investment, food and beverage, and metal ore extraction companies.
At the bottom of the list were companies active in entertainment and creative industries, followed by optical medical instrument manufacturers.
Returns Across Industries
A separate report, reviewing the returns of industries in the capital market, indicates that investors reaped the highest reruns from agricultural product companies while those investing in metal ore companies received the least.
According to the report published by IBENA, agriculture stocks registered the whopping return of 397% since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 21).
With a return of 367%, the communications industry ranked second. The return in paper industry was 354%, placing it at third place.
Businesses with the lowest returns were metal ore, power supply and base metals, respectively with capital returns of 38%, 45% and 49%.
Iran’s stock market has shown an upward trend over the past year with the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange posting about 70% growth since the beginning of the current fiscal year.
The top 30 listed companies account for more than 60% of the stock exchange’s market capitalization, including the country’s top exporters of petrochemicals, steel and copper.
The huge amount of fresh liquidity inflow and a rising number of investors rushing to the market were the main drivers of market growth.
According to CSDI, the number of investors has crossed 11 million. Over the six-month period, more than 400,000 trading codes have been issued for new investors.
Investors turned to the stock market, as they became disappointed with the lackluster foreign exchange, real-estate and automotive markets.
