TEHRAN, Iran, April 6
Trend:
Iran's stock market has been affected by the coronavirus, yet shares of some companies have traded considerably well during the crisis, stock market expert Homayoun Darabi told Trend.
"The effect of coronavirus on capital market can be divided into three sections. First is that stock market in Iran is based on raw material trading like in Australia and Brazil. It mostly consists of companies that produce raw and basic materials such as petrochemical, oil , steel and iron ore, therefore the coronavirus and reducing of oil prices slashed the price of petrochemicals and steel materials, so the companies were to be affected sooner or later," he said.
"The USD rate has affected Iran's stock market, while in recent days it has sharply increased, reaching to 170,000 rials, that is due to fall of the oil price," Darabi said.
"The second effect of the coronavirus is on the production companies," he said, also mentioning the drop in domestic market consumption.
"The consumption of products such as gasoline was reduced, so it has affected the capital market as well," he added.
"The third effect was that the crisis was an opportunity for some groups including pharmaceutical companies, chain stores and IT companies to improve their situation," he said, mentioning certain chain stores, pharma companies and alcohol manufacturers.
"The transactions are done online instead of cash these days, therefore online services that use bank cards are in good shape," he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11. Some sources claim the coronavirus outbreak started as early as November 2019.
Iran continues to apply strict measures to contain the further infection spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.