TEHRAN- The managing director of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) announced that the number of stock traders in this exchange, which was averagely 150 per day at the beginning of the past Iranian calendar year (March 2019) has already risen to 850, which indicates a 467-percent growth.

Ali Sahraei emphasized that the stock market has been highly welcomed by people from different sectors of the country since the last days of the previous year.

Such a high interest in making investment in the stock market has resulted in some unprecedented growth in this market, as TSE, which is Iran’s major stock exchange, has been registering new record highs of its main index, TEDPIX, for several times since then.

The index, which had closed at 512,000 points at the end of the previous year, has already surpassed 1.2 million points.

Different factors have been contributing to the noticeable development of the stock market, one of them is that this market is now more attractive for the investors compared to some other markets such as those of housing, gold, and foreign currency; in fact, the investors see the stock market more profitable at this time.

Facilitating trade condition

The stock market, for itself, is facilitating trades for the investors through launching some new methods. Listing the first exchange-traded fund (ETF) from a series of three ETFs on May 2 was one of these methods.

Through the three mentioned ETFs, the shares of some state-owned organizations and companies are planned to be offered.

Finance and economic affairs minister announced on Tuesday that the value of shares that are offered by the country’s first exchange-traded fund has already doubled.

Referring to the offering of the shares via the first ETF in the past month, Farhad Dejpasand said, “The offering was our first experience in this field. About 3.6 million persons purchased the units of shares offered by the first fund.”

“We are planning to offer the shares through the second ETF in the next [Iranian calendar] month (begins on June 21)”, the minister further announced.

Market efficiency of 130%

The current economic condition and the factors that have made the stock market an attractive place for investment making and the proper ground laid for trades in this market have brought a 130-percent market efficiency for the TSE during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-May 20).

During the mentioned two-month period, TSE experienced the highest-ever weekly growth of its main index, which occurred in the Iranian calendar week ended on April 24.

In that week, TEDPIX gained 96,160 points to 741,923, as 37.236 billion securities worth 398.185 trillion rials (about $9.4 billion) were traded through 5.696 million deals.

The TSE’s index also registered its highest-ever daily jump on April 18, when it gained 23,219 points to stand at 668,981, as over 5.775 billion securities worth 61.55 trillion rials (about $1.4 billion) were traded through 830,000 deals.

Traditional approaches changing

While the Iranian people had been sticking to their traditional ways of investment making, which were mainly in the markets of housing, gold, and foreign currency, they are now being attracted by the stock market as they are getting more acquainted with this market.

More familiar and more interested, more shareholders are entering the stock market, and even under the current condition, when the coronavirus pandemic has severely damaged many economic sectors, this market is experiencing some outstanding growth.

This condition is leading the liquidity toward the stock market and given that this market is a proper place for securing funds for the productive sectors, it is obvious that how the development of the stock market can bring economic growth for the country.