Iran capital market trade value has reached 180 trillion rial (some $18 billion) since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2010), the head of Securities and Exchange Organization of Iran said here on Tuesday.
The Islamic Republic of Iran News Network quoted Ali Saleh-Abadi as saying that, "the total trade value of Iran's capital market in the previous year stood at 184 trillion rial (some $18.4 billion)."
"Taking the over-the-counter market (OTC) into account, the capital market trade value stands at 230 trillion rial (some $23 billion) in the first nine months of the year (ended December 21, 2010)," he added.
Tehran Stock Exchange's index surpassed 19,000 on Monday as an all-time high this year (to end March 21, 2011). Its previous record was set on October 9, 2010, when it hit 18,937.
Tehran's capital market value stood at 870 trillion rials (some $84 billion), the Mehr News Agency quoted Hassan Qalibaf-Asl, the managing director of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), as saying in December 2010.
The TSE is Iran's largest stock exchange. It is a full member of the World Federation of Exchanges and a founding member of the Federation of Euro-Asian Stock Exchanges. TSE has been one of the world's best performing stock exchanges in recent years.
The most important advantage that Iran's capital market has in comparison with other regional markets is that there are 40 industries directly involved in it. Industries such as the automotive, telecommunications, agriculture, petrochemical, mining, steel iron, copper, banking and insurance, financial mediation and others trade shares at the stock market, which makes it unique in the Middle East.
The second advantage is that most of the state-owned firms are being privatized under the general policies of article 44 in the Iranian constitution. Under the circumstances, people are allowed to buy the shares of newly-privatized firms.
Iran is among the few major economies that has maintained positive economic growth despite the 2008 global financial crisis
The world's fifth-largest oil exporter hopes to raise $12.5 billion by privatizing over 500 state firms during the 2010-11 year, and plans to sell all of its refineries and petrochemicals units, promising potential investors a solid return from the IPOs.