TEHRAN - Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) has halted its activities over the martyrdom of President Ebrahim Raisi and his accompanying team in a helicopter crash a day earlier.

The organization announced the halt of all transactions at the Tehran Securities Exchange (TSE) as well as over-the-counter and commodity-based transactions on Monday.

The SEO, however, said that physical market activities at mercantile exchanges go on as normal, adding that it will make more announcements regarding market activity in the coming days. 

President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and seven others were on board a helicopter when it crashed in Varzaqan region of East Azarbaijan Province on Sunday.

Their aircraft and two other copters were en route to Tabriz City hours after Raisi, along with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, inaugurated the joint Qiz Qalasi Dam at the border between the two countries earlier on Sunday.

Elected in 2021, Raisi served as the eighth president of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

TSE is one of the four Iranian stock exchanges, and the most important one. The other three ones are Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX), and Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market, known as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB).

In late April, Head of Iran's Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) Majid Eshghi said the organization is determined to support shareholders in the stock market.[

Speaking in a meeting attended by economic operators from financial institutions, analysts, and capital market media, Eshqi said “Political, social, and economic debates have created some high expectations from the stock market.”

The official referred to the complexity of the prevailing conditions in the market, announcing the serious determination of this organization to support the rights of shareholders.

“The mistrust among the shareholders under the influence of various factors caused the creation of difficult conditions in the market, and now we need empathy given such a problem and to overcome these conditions,” he said.

Eshqi further said when the condition of the capital market is not very suitable, naturally, private sector companies are not very willing to offer their shares in the stock market and they believe that there is not much value for the companies in this market.

Previous experiences, however, indicate that the current conditions governing the market cannot be continued in the long term, the official added.

EF/