TSE main index rises to 55,000

TEHRAN,July 8(MNA) – The Tehran Stock Exchange main index (TEPIX) rose by 479 units on Sunday and hit 54,895. Trading volume reached 1.156 billion shares worth 4.045 trillion rials (about $161 million based on the Tehran Forex Center’s U.S. dollar exchange rate of 24,800 rials). On June 29, Mehr reported that the TEPIX has gained around 30 percent since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2013). In January, the chairman of Iran’s Securities and Exchange Organization, Ali Salehabadi, said that the total value of Iran’s capital market, including the Tehran Stock Exchange and the over-the-counter markets, is half of the gross domestic product (GDP). Founded in 1967, the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has been one of the world's best performing stock markets in recent years and ranked as the best bourse index in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 2010 in terms of performance of the main index. The TSE’s annual growth rate of main indices also ranked second among all members of the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) in 2010.