Market News

Global investment into Iran between January 2013 and March 2016 has been steadily going up, according to the FDI Magazine, an English-language bi-monthly news and foreign direct investment publication, based in England. During 2013 the country attracted three FDI projects, a figure that increased to eight during 2014 and again to nine during 2015. During 2016’s first quarter Iran has won 22 FDI projects, the highest rate of investments per
Job numbers and capital expenditure also rose between 2013 and 2016. Some 352 jobs were created in 2013 with capital expenditure of $79 million, which rose in 2014 to 2732 new jobs and capital expenditure of $1.67 billion.

Although 2015 showed a 48.08% increase in capital expenditure overall, the first quarter was notable in failing to attract any FDI projects. In contrast, the first quarter of 2016 showed 22 FDI projects, creating 5376 jobs, with a capex of $3.49 billion. This increased investment in Iran between quarter one of 2015 and quarter one of 2016 is in line with overall investment in the Middle East during this period, which increased by 15.24%.

During 2015’s first quarter, Iran was ranked joint last with Syria for inward FDI in the Middle East. However, as a result of increased investment during 2016 it is currently ranked third out of 12, after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

International sanctions on Iran which were lifted in January 2016 have reopened the country’s economy to a stream of investments across a range of industries including financial services, consumer electronics and renewable energy. The primary investing countries in Iran during this period were South Korea and Germany, which together have a capital expenditure of $2.15 billion, according to the report.

 Elsewhere, Iran Fara Bourse Managing Director, Amir Hamooni, stressed that IFB has attracted two trillion rials (about $57.7 million) in foreign investment so far in the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20), while the figure is equal to the total investment made during the past calendar year, telling IRNA, an on-line media outlet. “These foreign investments are attracted via investment funds or foreigners purchasing shares and securities in OTC market,” Hamooni said. The official also noted that following the implementation of the nuclear deal with the world powers, IFB has witnessed a rush of foreign applicants for buying Islamic Treasury bills and is ready to facilitate foreigner’s presence and activities in domestic debt market.

Following you can see value of Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) quarterly performance in Iran’s stock exchanges from June 2013-June 2015.

In the Market

Automotive: Most of the names turned negative in today’s activity. Khesapa, with more than 61mn shares being traded witnessed the highest volume of transactions in the group. It lost 2% of its price and closed at IRR 1254. Khezamia finished its action with 1% drop, standing at IRR 1058, with 44mn of its shares changing hands. Khavar, Varena and Khepars were other tickers being on the flipside while a few smaller companies in the space witnessing buy queues such as Kheshargh and Khemehvar.

Metals: majority of the symbols entered the negative territory during their session. Zob ended up in the positive zero domain. Volume of its trades exceeded 31mn, leading the group at IRR 3074. Foulad, the other big name of the category closed the activity at IRR 1230, in the negative Zero territory.

Chemicals: they followed suit just like the other sectors in exchange market as the action was negative among the constituents of the group. Petrol led the group down with more than IRR 40 bn worth of transactions, dragging down the TSE Index 5 points and finishing the day at IRR 1380. Other players in this space, namely Shefara, Shetooka and Shesina closed their session climbing up about 5%. Fars the giant of the group and the whole market was not attractive to the market practitioners since volume of trades were not considerable and ended up at IRR 5290.

In the Utilities, tomorrow,  Omid Taban Hoor Energy Management company will go public on Iran Fara Bourse. 230 mn shares of the company equaling 10 percent of its total shares will go floated. It is the third company of its type being offered on IFB.

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