The world’s first stock exchange was established in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in the early seventeenth century, and the first company to offer its shares on the stock exchange was the East India Company; But how was the stock market formed in Iran?
Preliminary studies on the establishment of the stock exchange in Iran date back to 1315 AH. This year, a Belgian named Ron Lutherfeld, after conducting extensive studies on the establishment of the stock exchange in Iran, prepared the internal charter of the stock exchange and presented it to the Iranian authorities, but given the circumstances of that time and the outbreak of World War II, The review and establishment of the stock exchange in Iran was delayed for more than 25 years.
Finally, in 1341 AH, a commission was formed in the Ministry of Commerce of Iran with the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and the Industrial and Mining Development Bank of Iran, and the initial agreement to establish a stock exchange in this commission was prepared. At the end of the same year, that is, in 41 AH, a delegation from the Brussels Stock Exchange, headed by the Secretary General of the Exchange, was invited to our country to participate in the establishment of the Iran Stock Exchange. The Iranian parliament approved and was notified to the Central Bank for implementation by the Ministry of Economy. About a year after the promulgation of the law on the establishment of the stock exchange, on the 15th of Bahman, 1346 AH, the Tehran Stock Exchange by conducting several transactions on the shares of the Industrial and Mining Development Bank, which was the largest complex of production and economic units at that date, Officially started its activity.
47 years of history of stock exchange in Iran
The stock market has experienced many ups and downs. From 1346 to 1357, the number of companies and institutions listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange increased from 10 enterprises with a capital of 2.6 billion rials to 142 companies with more than 308 billion rials. With the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the number of accepted companies decreased from 105 to 56 at the end of 1988. The reason for this has been the acquisition of many enterprises by the government. (Due to the nationalization of banks, insurance and some industries in the country, a large number of listed companies were excluded.) The sharp decline in the stock market during the eight years of the Iran-Iraq war is also an important event in the Iranian stock market.
Currently, four major Iranian stock exchanges operate under the supervision of the Exchange and Securities Organization:
Tehran Stock Exchange, where companies’ stocks and other securities such as partnership bonds are traded.
OTC Iran, where the shares of companies that for some reason fail to be listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange are traded.
Iran Commodity Exchange where all kinds of goods such as petrochemical products, metals, agricultural products and futures contracts, coins, etc. are traded.
Finally, the newly established energy exchange, in which electricity-centric energy carriers, as one of the most important energy carriers, is traded.
Today in Iran, the stock market has become one of the goals of people to invest. Even low-income people in the community try to multiply their meager capital and wealth by investing in the stock market. For this reason, in recent years, stock exchange education has become widespread in Iran. Many schools have organized stock exchange training courses to teach people the principles and techniques of investing in the stock market. They believe that investing in the stock market has many complexities and that is why entering the stock market requires training. They say that those who invest in the stock market without attending stock exchange training classes and without any knowledge and information about the stock market, often fail and lose their money.
