TEHRAN- The value of trade at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME) rose 15 percent during July, IME Public Relations Department reported.

While different trading floors of this stock market witnessed trading of more than 2.6 million tons (MT) of commodities worth over $2.51 million, the amount of trading also experienced a growth of 21 percent.

During the last month, the oil and petrochemical trading floor of IME played host to trading of 1.276 MT of commodities worth more than $1.512 million.

On this trading floor, more than 353.301 MT of bitumen, 240.546 MT of polymer products and 111.523 MT of chemical products, 413.770 MT of VB feed stock, 116.050 MT of lube cut oil, 29.620 MT of sulfur, 6.679 MT of insulation, 5.140 MT of slaps waxes and 20 MT of argon were traded by customers.

The metal and mineral trading floor witnessed trading over 780.272 MT of commodities worth more than $994 million.

On this trading floor 749.662 MT of steel, 8.130 MT of copper, 680 MT of molybdenum concentrates, 60 MT of precious metals concentrates, 100 MT of zinc, 5,000 MT of iron ore, 8.640 MT of aluminum as well as 8 MT of coke were traded by customers.

The report declares that the agricultural trading floor witnessed trading of 15 kg of saffron strands.

The side market of the IME experienced trading of 528 MT of enamel bitumen, 80 MT of toluene, 1.876 MT of sodium sulfate as well as 1.000 MT of steel scrap, 12 MT of nitrogen fertilizer and 42 MT of pipe coating.

On June 24, during the meeting of IME shareholders, IME Managing Director Hamed Soltani-Nejad said that this exchange has prepared ten macro plans to improve its performance during the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020).

He mentioned development of underlying assets through existing instruments, development of financial instruments for commodity-backed securities, expansion of market size and depth, increasing cooperation with other organizations, and strengthening IME brand as some of the mentioned macro plans.

Soltani-Nejad has previously announced that IME accounted for 39 percent of the value of the total trades in the Iranian capital market during the past Iranian calendar year.

He put the value of IME trades at 1.78 quadrillion rials (about $42.3 billion) in the past year.

The value of trades at IME rose 52 percent in the past calendar year from its previous year.

Over 24.84 million tons of commodities valued at 884.3 trillion rials (about $21.05 billion) were traded at the physical market of IME, showing seven percent fall in the amount and 77 percent rise in the worth of trades year on year.

Applying new financial instruments in Iranian capital market was one of the achievements of the country’s exchange markets during the past year. 

In this due, IME launched “option” in early March 2019 in an approach to diversify financing methods for agricultural products.

Option is a contract which gives the buyer (the owner or holder of the option) the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset or instrument at a specified strike price prior to or on a specified date, depending on the form of the option. 

MA/MA