Market News

– Reacting to the rumor on the bankruptcy of Iranian Banks in general (and Bank Saderat in specific), the Minister of Economic Affairs and Financeannounced that Saderat bank is one of largest of its kind in the country in possession of a significant amount of assets, whose capital will also surge after implementing the asset revaluation. He then referred to the government plan to offset banks’ debt and claims, which will also boost the banking sector and announced its new plan to credit rate-regulated banks in the near future.

– The Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade announced the prohibition of registering import orders in USD, based on the CBI proposal to ditch dollar in trade activities, since Wednesday, Feb 28^th by all traders.

– Following attempts to improve banking relations between Iranian banks and their foreign counterparts, the Spanish Aresbank is to provide long and short-term facilities to Iranian banks and improve the trading capacities between the two countries.

In the Market

Tehran Stock Exchange started a disappointing week with a mostly negative outing on today’s session. Both TEDPIX and IFEX finished with losses of (0.58%) and (1.1%), respectively, largely thanks to the ambiguities around future Iran’s economy.

The recent fluctuations in the currency market, which were eased after the CBI rescue package was introduced, seem to have caused a price growth in the housing sector. Positive movements were detected in the Construction industry with Tehran Renovation and Construction plus Kerman Province Civil & Development going up more than 4%.

An official in the Cement industry has been reported to announce the removal of obstacles ahead exporting cement to Iraq and added that the 4 active companies in this area have agreed to raise prices by $5 per ton; such a statement was rejected by that official in the final hour of the session. Except a few, however, the entire group settled with significant gains.

Following the non-trading of share blocks of Alborz and Asia Insurance companies in the past month, such blocks were planned to be offered again; in today’s session, 169 mn shares of Alborz Insurance, in the Insurance space, worth IRR 219.86 bn, were traded at IRR 1,301.

The majority of tickers in the Metals and Iron Ore groups went through heavy sales pressure following the decline in commodity prices. The Oil Products space also saw negative trades. An official in Iranol Oil Company (-1.33%) said they have broken their records of producing and selling motor oil over the second year of reducing selling raw oil by 30%.

Companies listed on the Automotive space, however, started the session strong and managed to keep its gains through the closing bell.

Source:

2018, Iranian Banks are nowhere near bankruptcy!, Saturday, March 3, p.1,<https://agahgroup.com>