Tehran Stocks opened in negative territory after a two-day Eid holiday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, amid growing concern among investors that the bear market is here to stay. 

The benchmark of Tehran Stock Exchange lost more than 33,707 points on Tuesday to stand at 926, 132 points to fall 3.5%, moving farther away from the key 1,000,000 level. 

Value of trade in TSE and the junior equity market Iran Fara Bourse reached 130 trillion rials ($764 million) with shares in auto, bank, metal and refinery companies accounting for the majority of trade, according to Boursepress.ir.

Market analysts see the government’s recent decision to allow shareholders to sell 30% of the so-called Justice Shares as another shock to the bourse. 

Justice Shares belong to big government-owned companies and were given to the low income groups a decade ago. The shares were not tradable until recently. 

The Economy Ministry has allowed shareholders to place sale orders for 30% of the shares in their portfolio from May 30.  

Following the announcement, investors rushed to sell particularly large-cap shares in their portfolio in anticipation of oversupply in the coming days that may result in steep declines in share prices. 

Large-cap stocks account for a majority of shares in the Justice Share portfolio including 49 state-owned companies in the auto, metal, mining, and agriculture, petrochemical and banking sectors.

Sell-off pressure was higher for large-cap stocks as indicated by lower losses in the equal-weighted index — at 1.8% — and higher TSE-30 index. The former gives the same weight to all stocks irrespective of their market cap while the latter only tracks the performance of 30 companies with the highest market cap. 

Sell-off pressure in refineries, petrochemical, metal, bank and auto stocks pushed the TSE-30 index down to 4.16 %. 

Market Performance 

About 7.95 billion shares valued at 68.08 trillion rials ($391.3 million) changed hands at TSE on Tuesday.

Trading at TSE and over-the-counter Iran Fara Bourse starts on Saturday and ends Wednesday.

Sina Chemical Industries Company was the biggest winner as its shares went up 5% to 175,481 rials per share. 

Machine Sazi Arak company incurred the biggest loss among all TSE-listed companies to go down 6.35% to 11,392 rials per share.

Persian Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company contributed the most to the benchmark’s fall, followed by Mobarakeh Steel Company, National Iranian Copper Industries Company and Social Security Investment Company.

National Investment Company of Iran gave the biggest boost to the benchmark index, followed by Karafarin Bank, Bama Mining Company and Pars Oil Company.

The Price Index lost 8,956.73 points, or 3.51% to close at 246,089.84. The First Market Index went down 26,434.35 points, or 3.75% to post 678,933.04.

The Second Market Index was down 60,785.14 points, or 3.15% to reach 1,867,004.71.

The Industry Index lost 30,522.63 points or 3.64% to register 808,933.66. The Free Float Index was down 43,321.4 points to hit 1,242,981.5.

TSE 30 went down 1,742.21 points to settle at 40,125.67 and the TSE 50 ended 1,434.14 points lower to finish at 34,030.06.

Iran Fara Bourse main index, IFX, lost 197.24 points, or 1.79%, to close Tuesday trade at 10,825.4.

About 2.26 billion securities valued at 62.23 trillion rials ($357.65 million) were traded at the over-the-counter exchange for the day.

Esfahan Steel Company had the highest number of traded shares as 155.61 million of its shares worth 849.88 billion rials ($4.88 million) were traded.

Middle East Mines and Mineral Industries Development Holding Company, Esfahan Steel Company, Zagros Petrochemical Company and Saba Tamin Investment Company had the most negative impact on IFX. 

Marun Petrochemical Company gave the biggest boost to IFX, followed by Gohar Zamin Iron Ore Company, Ghadir Petrochemical Company and Toliddaru Company.

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