TEHRAN- TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), climbed 48,668 points, or eight percent, during the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), IRNA reported.

The index closed at 645,762 at the end of the week, while the indices of Bank Mellat, Tejarat Bank, and Mobarakeh Steel Company mostly contribute to the rise of TEDPIX.

The past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19) witnessed a very fruitful performance for the country’s stock market.

As TSE Head Ali Sahraei has announced, the value of trades at the Tehran Stock Exchange jumped 2.6 folds, while Return on Investment (ROI) reached 180 percent in the previous year.

TSE is one of the four major stock exchanges of Iran, the other three exchanges are Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market known as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX). The lucrative status was also witnessed in these markets in the past year.

While growth and development in the Iranian stock market have been started in recent years, the previous year was in fact a time of flourishment for the country’s stock exchanges.

Different factors contributed to the past year’s prominent success in the stock market.

One important factor was proper ground laid in the stock market and providing better conditions for traders.

The other factor was the status of parallel markets, such as those of foreign currency, gold coin, and housing in the past year that made making investment in the stock market an obviously better and more profitable choice for the investors.

And on Wednesday, Iran’s stock market held its largest-ever IPO.

Social Security Investment Company (SSIC, also known by its Persian acronym Shasta), Iran’s major state-owned investment company, offered eight billion shares, which account for 10 percent of its stakes, for sales at the Tehran Stock Exchange.

Each institutional or individual trader could buy a maximum of 10,000 shares, by placing an order through the book-building method, according to a notice published on the TSE website.

Shasta is the investment arm of the Social Security Organization, which provides healthcare entitlement and pension benefits for a large proportion of Iran’s middle and working-class members of the labor force.

MA/MA