Tehran Stock Market -- Best Performing Bourse In The Persian Gulf

Tehran Stock Exchange

Analysts Term Tehran's Bourse Lucrative Market for Foreign Investors -- Fars News Agency

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran's bourse, the best-performing market in the Persian Gulf, has provided a fruitful and luring ground for foreign investors as it needs significant share purchases by foreign capital holders in order to prosper in the longer term.

Investors have pushed up the value of shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange as more of Iran's state-owned companies have floated stakes. The market's main index, the Tedpix, has grown by 41 per cent since the start of the year, while markets in the rest of the Persian Gulf have lost value.

The MSCI PGCC index, which measures the performance of seven major Persian Gulf markets, has lost 17 per cent of its value since the beginning of 2008. Emerging markets as a whole have fallen by 21 per cent.

So far, the Tedpix has been driven by domestic investors, including wealthy Iranians, public sector pension funds and the investment arms of state-owned banks.

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My Comment: I guess no one in Tehran got the memo about sanctions, impending attack on their nuclear facilities, and the economic slump that has been the normal state of affairs for the past few years.

When I read more into the story, one quickly learns that much of this investment came from wealthy individuals (i.e. corrupt government leaders), Government agencies, pension funds, and the investment arms of state-owned banks.

Share purchases are also limited to only a few select stocks, and there is little if any foreign participation. Even though the Tehran Bourse is open to foreigners, I doubt that there is a stampede to invest right now.