Iran’s TSE keeps rising as rial depreciates further against major currencies

Trade in Iran’s main stock market keeps surging to fresh highs as national currency rial weakens while gold rises slightly.

A Tuesday report in the official IRNA news agency said that the main index in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) had reached 1.433 million points, up 1.44% against close of trade a day earlier.

Steelmakers and petrochemical companies were best performers in TSE trading as some 9.886 billion shares and other securities changed hands in the market on Tuesday to bring its total value to 50,833 trillion rials ($221.8 billion).

The boom in the TSE comes as main index TEDPIX had dropped to regions near 1.1 million points early this year, down from record highs of over 2 million reported over August 2020.

However, the promising close of the market came amid continued depreciation of the rial. The national currency fell to 264,000 against the US dollar before it closed at 263,500 later on Tuesday. The unofficial rate is a record low for the rial since November.

Iran reports $2.91bn in tax revenues for two months to late May

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Dollar’s surge began hours after the Central Bank of Iran offered its dollars for exchange in official currency shops at a rate of 256,560 earlier in the day.

It also caused a surge in gold prices as Bahar Azadi, a bullion, rose by 1.54 million rials to 114.11 million rials. Each gram of gold rose by 0.65% to 10.092 million rials, according to reports in the local media.

Experts say Iran could see a new wave of speculative trade in stocks and foreign currencies if negotiations with world powers on reviving a 2015 nuclear agreement do not resume following a change of administration in Tehran that took place earlier this month.

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