Four new mutual funds received their permits from the Securities and Exchange Organization this month, according to Securities and Exchange News Agency (SENA). One of the funds, which is managed by Keshavarzi Bank’s brokerage, is to act as market maker, to provide liquidity for various stocks in the Tehran Stock Exchange. Three other funds are managed by Kardan Investment Bank. Two will be equity funds, while the third one will be a bond fund. Currently, there are nearly 139 mutual funds active in Iran, 35 of which are bond funds and the rest have got at least one foot in stocks. Collectively they are valued at 74 trillion rials ($2.2 billion at market exchange rate). Bond funds manage around 59 trillion rials ($1.7 billion) of assets in Iran, while hybrid funds hold 573 billion rials in stocks and bonds. Equity funds have 13 trillion rials ($388 million) of assets under management. The figure drops considerably for index funds with 83 billion rials of assets and even further for Exchange Traded Funds with 1.7 trillion rials under their thumb.
