Jam-e Tala Hits 1-Year High on Fifth Straight Gain; Lotus Gold Fund Trades Below NAV as Emami Coin's Premium Reaches 9.63 Million Tomans (Friday, October 2, 2026)

On Friday, October 2, 2026, Tehran's gold-fund board shows a simple fact: the Jam-e Tala fund (ticker JAMF) closed Thursday, October 1 at 23,004 rials per unit, its fifth straight higher close and a one-year high, just 0.31 percent above its net asset value (NAV) of 22,933 rials per the latest nightly reading. The Lotus Parsian gold fund (ticker LOTF) also hit a one-year high the same day at 1,805,311 rials, yet traded 0.39 percent below its own NAV of 1,814,350 rials. Over the same window, the Emami gold coin's premium, the gap between its market price and the intrinsic value of its gold content, stood at 9,628,100 tomans, close to 3.8 percent above intrinsic value.

Background

Exchange-traded gold funds hold mostly gold bars and coins, and their units trade daily on the Tehran Stock Exchange or Farabourse. Unlike the physical coin, which is priced in the free market with no formal arbitrage mechanism, a fund's unit is kept close to its NAV through market-maker creation and redemption. The mechanism and fee structure are explained in this Sahmino explainer, and what NAV and an exchange-traded fund mean is covered in this lesson. Gold funds on the Iran Mercantile Exchange have also grown steadily in assets since July 2026.

The numbers

• Jam-e Tala (JAMF): closed October 1 at 23,004 rials; one-year high, fifth straight higher close; 0.31% above its NAV of 22,933 rials (reading dated October 1).
• Lotus Parsian Gold (LOTF): closed October 1 at 1,805,311 rials; one-year high; 0.39% below its NAV of 1,814,350 rials (reading dated October 2).
• Mofid Gold (MOFD): closed October 1 at 713,145 rials; 2.97% above its NAV of 694,751 rials (reading dated October 2), and not at a one-year high.
• Emami coin: priced at 260,395,000 tomans (October 1, 16:59 Tehran time); premium of 9,628,100 tomans, about 3.8% above intrinsic value. An independent calculation by price tracker alanchand.com at 04:25 Tehran time on October 2 put the full coin's premium at 2.73%; both figures, despite differing methodologies, show the premium in the low single digits, not the tens of percent seen in some weeks earlier this year.

Drivers

Domestic gold's rally these days is coming more from the currency than the global market. 18-karat gold rose from 23,363,000 tomans on September 17 to 25,694,400 tomans on October 1, a gain of nearly 10 percent in about two weeks. Over the same window, Mehr News Agency reported (October 1, 13:16) 18-karat gold in Tehran at 25,596,800 tomans per gram, consistent with our own data. But global spot gold fell from $4,343 on September 17 to $4,175 on October 1, down about 3.9 percent. In other words, the main driver of domestic gold's jump was not the global price but the free-market dollar, which rose from 2,279,000 rials on September 17 to 2,584,650 rials on October 1, a gain of nearly 13.4 percent. Donya-e-Eqtesad separately reported the free-market dollar at 257,960 tomans as of 14:11 on October 1, in the same range. At the same time, the US 10-year Treasury yield reached 5.34 percent, its highest since 2002, which Mehr News Agency said has strengthened the dollar in global markets; that pressure has reached Iran's domestic gold market through the free-market dollar channel, not through the global gold price.

Outlook

As long as upward pressure on the free-market dollar continues, domestic gold will likely keep following that path regardless of which way the global ounce moves. Funds trading near or below NAV, Lotus and to some extent Jam-e Tala, offer a cheaper route into that same rally. But the advantage is not uniform: Mofid Gold trades 2.97 percent above its own NAV today, nearly as rich as the coin's premium. A "gold fund" label alone is no guarantee of being cheap; each fund's premium has to be checked separately.

Bottom line

Among Tehran's gold funds, Lotus (LOTF) and, to a lesser extent, Jam-e Tala trade near or below their net asset value, while the Emami coin still carries a premium of roughly 3 to 4 percent over its intrinsic gold value. As long as the Lotus fund's premium stays below 1 percent of NAV, that route remains cheaper than buying the coin for the same gold exposure; if the fund's premium climbs above 2 percent of NAV, that advantage disappears.

What to watch

• The daily premium of the Lotus, Jam-e Tala and Mofid gold funds against their own NAV.
• The Emami coin's premium on independent price trackers such as tgju.org and alanchand.com.
• The free-market dollar's path, since it has been the main driver of domestic gold, not the global ounce.
• Global spot gold, to see whether the current divergence closes or widens further.