TEHRAN- During the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday), 740,132 tons of commodities valued at $513 million were traded at Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), the Public Relations and International Affairs Department of the exchange reported.

In the past week, IME sold 378,696 tons of commodities valued at nearly $305 million on its mineral and industrial trading floor.

Commodities traded on this floor were 371,751 tons of steel, 4,560 tons of copper, 2,079 tons of aluminum, 120 tons of molybdenum concentrate, 200 tons of coke and 20 kg of gold bars.

The next trading floor was the oil and petrochemical with trading 360,482 tons of commodities valued at more than $208 million.

On this floor the exchange traded 82,500 tons of vacuum bottom, 120,933 tons of bitumen, 75,563 tons of polymeric products, 44,904 tons of chemicals, 24,000 tons of lube cut, 5,215 tons of base oil, 110 tons of argon and 7,525 tons of sulfur.

It's worth noting that the IME also saw trade of 953 tons of commodities on its side market.

The value of trades at Iran Mercantile Exchange in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20) rose 108 percent compared to the preceding year.

During the past year, about 3.5 quadrillion rials (about $83.5 billion) worth of commodities were traded at the mentioned market.

As reported, over 33.39 million tons of goods valued at 3.12 quadrillion rials (about $74.43 billion) were traded at the exchange’s physical market, registering 27 percent and 127 percent of growth in terms of weight and value, respectively.

In the mentioned year, several new records were achieved in terms of the volume and value of transactions in the mentioned market’s various floors including the industrial, petroleum, and petrochemical floors.

The IME’s mineral and industrial trading floor witnessed the trade of 13.738 million tons of commodities worth more than 1.66 quadrillion rials (about $39.5 billion) in the said year.

This floor was a platform to sell 12.437 million tons of steel, 207,205 tons of copper, 238,920 tons of aluminum, 13,795 tons of zinc, 1,300 tons of cast iron, 515 tons of lead, and 675 kg of gold bars.

On its oil and petrochemical trading floor, the IME traded more than 5.141 million tons of commodities worth over 833 trillion rials (over $19.8 billion), to register 11 percent and 96 percent of growth in terms of value and weight, respectively.

Saffron and dates were the top traded commodities on the agricultural floor with 84 tons of saffron and 610 tons of dates being sold on this floor.

IME is one of the four major stock markets of Iran, the other three markets are Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), Iran's over-the-counter (OTC) market known also as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), and Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX).

MA/MA