TEHRAN- TEDPIX, the main index of Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), rose 7,671 points to 1.45 million on Saturday.As reported, over 6.766 billion securities worth 48.112 trillion rials (about $171.8 million) were traded at the TSE.The first market’s index rose 7,756 points and the second market’s index gained 9,014 points.TEDPIX fell 9,004 points (0.62 percent) in the past Iranian calendar week (ended on Friday).As reported, 32.361 billion securities worth 219.753 trillion rials (about $784.83 million) were traded through 1.741 deals at the TSE in the past week.The number and value of traded securities dropped 20.4 percent and 5.4 percent, respectively, while the number of deals fell 7.18 percent in the past week from the preceding week.TSE is one of the four Iranian stock exchanges, the other three ones are Iran Mercantile Exchange (IME), Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX), and Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market, known as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB).Senior stock market analyst, Ashkan Zoudfekr, believes government must support the stock market against other parallel competitors like money and property markets.“Considering the fact that the capital market provides liquidity and dynamism to the economy, and is a useful and active part of the country's economic development, strengthening it should become a priority for the government,” Zoudfekr said.Stating that lack of sufficient attention and determination by the government to regulate and supervise speculative markets has caused liquidity to be guided to such markets and become idle and unproductive.The expert further stressed that the government needs to formulate a specific strategy for the capital market to be followed by other institutions.

He noted that the representatives of Stock Exchange Organization (SEO) should be actively collaborating with the country’s legislative and decision-making institutions to improve the market’s condition.MA/MA