Trading was halted on stock exchanges in Isfahan and Tabriz on Monday after brokers launched a strike following a drop in Iran’s stock market.
The market is in a downward trend, dropping more than 5,600 points at the start of trading on Monday, with 90% of the market in the red and more than 60% of stocks waiting to be sold.
Recent sharp decline In a flash reminiscent of the July 2020 crash, Tehran’s stock market plummeted more than 30% in a week, wiping out the savings of countless private investors lured by government guarantees of market safety. Suspicions persist that government agents had artificially inflated the market and made huge profits before it collapsed.
Memories of the Crisis Investors remain uneasy, and every market volatility has heightened fears. Critics of the government have cited President Hassan Rouhani’s government’s decision in early 2020 to sell state assets to the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) as market manipulation. Initially, the index soared to 2 million points, fuelled by small investors lured by the government amid a devaluation of the rial. But it has since fallen to 1.2 million points, wiping out investor wealth.
At the time, hardline critics within the government accused Rouhani’s administration of deliberately attracting public investment, primarily through the sale of shares in public and quasi-public companies, to ease budget shortfalls.
Largely controlled by the government To the Iranian government and its companies, which control about 80 percent of the Iranian economy, the Tehran Stock Exchange is just one cog in the state economic machine. Iran’s economic chiefs are often appointed by the government itself, undermining the stock exchange’s operational independence.
With the rial continuing to lose value and inflation rising to nearly 50 percent, many Iranians are scrambling to convert their savings into more stable assets such as foreign currency or gold.
