Market News

– After the quite disappointing performance of CBI maintaining the nation’s currency devaluation, now the administration is to make amends for the missed opportunities by establishing an organized Iranian Currency Exchange meeting the hard currency and remittance orders needs of the retail side. It seems that the NIMA platform will remain intact for the whole FX trades as it is and the new exchange is to address the micro to mid-sized transactions of the nations via close participation of exchange houses. Moreover, the exchange has the goal of closing the free market and NIMA FX rates. It is also believed that after a while these two platforms will merge to create a unique one.

– Continuing the policy of bringing new firms to Iran Capital Market, on Monday, 10% of Iran Office Machinery (a subsidiary of Maadiran Group) will be offered to the public on Iran Fara Bourse under the ticker name of “IOMZ”. Each investor code (individual or institutional) can purchase a maximum of 2,000 shares with a price ranging from 3,320 to 3,650 via book building method.

– After the ratification of the generals of Iranian Fund of Funds (FoF) prospectus, now the chair of Iran Fara Bourse announced that the first FoF is to be operational soon. The fund belongs to Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order under the Barkat Foundation and holds more than IRR 6,000 bn in assets.

In the Market

Equities tumbled again on today’s session with moderate losses, as global prices concerns weighed, especially on energy-related sectors. TEDPIX lost -0.49% and closed at 175,713.15 level while IFEX (-0.47%) performed nearly the same and stood above 1,900 level.

There is a palpable sense of real angst about the market’s prospects as the market commentary is beginning to emphasize the growing risk of a bear market. Commentary has included rising recession risk; companies inability to perform properly due to sanctions snapback and forecasting message of the sharp losses in commodity-based sectors.

TSE and IFB sectors that underperformed the market today were the Oil Products (-3.2%), Iron Ores (-1.34%) and Chemicals (-1.00%). The fall of global crude, which has been pressured by ongoing supply concerns and dropped again 6.9% to $53.44/bbl extended its decline to 30.5% from its October high, made investors think a bit harder on their energy-related shares which ended in heavier than expected sell queues.

Finally and on the flip side, some news on the inevitability of a free market FX translation rate for Banking (+2.63%) tickers made the demand to be strong again for the industry tickers. Mellat Bank (BMLT, +4.74%) as the group leader has the most FX reserves which could bring its investors better than expected EPS.

Source:

2018, CBI to establish an organized Iranian Currency Exchange!, Wednesday, Nov 21, p.1,<https://agahgroup.com>