Iran Market Pulse: Monday Midday, August 3, 2026; 96% of Today's TEDPIX Gain Was Booked Before 9:05 a.m.

The Tehran Stock Exchange did nearly all of today's work before most traders had sat down at their desks. As of 11:05 a.m. on Monday, 12 Mordad 1405 (3 August 2026), the TEDPIX main index stood at 5,276,664 points, up 122,607 points or 2.38% on the previous close. That is a large number, but the more telling one sits elsewhere: according to live data from the Tehran Securities Exchange Technology Management Company, the index opened at its first print of the session, at 9:05 a.m., on 5,271,575 points. In other words, 117,518 points of today's gain, about 96% of it, was already in place before the session's first print, and the market advanced only a further 5,089 points, or 0.1%, over the next two hours.

Today's snapshot

Today's headlines

• Capital-market fundraising in the first four months of 1405 reached 443 trillion tomans, 9.5% more than the same period last year and equal to 25.4% of the whole of last year's total (per SENA, 3 August).
• The number of active Tehran Stock Exchange shareholder codes reached 490,400 in the week to 29 July, with retail investors accounting for 67.6% of that week's turnover value (Bourse News, citing the Securities and Exchange Organization, 3 August).
• The board of the Securities and Exchange Organization authorized the establishment of investment funds in private-financing instruments (SENA, 3 August).
• In Iran Khodro's fourteenth sales round, 861,285 people registered for 53,900 vehicles, about 49.4% fewer than in the round held in early Tir (late June) (Khabar Online, 3 August).
• Japan's Ministry of Finance and the US Treasury formally confirmed a joint yen-buying intervention carried out on 31 July, the first coordinated intervention by the two since 2011 (Al Jazeera, 3 August).

Stocks: a rally that fit inside the opening auction

Today's tick-by-tick breakdown is a complete lesson in reading the tape. The main index closed yesterday at 5,154,057 points. Today's first print, at 9:05 a.m., landed at 5,271,575 points, meaning the session opened with a 2.28% gap. From that moment to 11:05 a.m. the index reached only 5,276,664 points. The entire move of the first two hours of trading was 5,089 points, against the 117,518 points that had settled into place before the first print.

The mechanism is clear and has nothing to do with today's buying power. Each symbol's opening price is discovered from pre-opening orders, and those orders were written last night and this morning, precisely while the news of the cancelled planned strike and the start of a new round of talks was on the table. The market discovered the new price in the pre-opening queue, not during trading. Put differently, what you see on the board today is last night's reaction, timestamped 9 a.m.

There is also a subtle but important difference on the board. The equal-weight index opened at 9:05 a.m. on 1,491,816 points (a 2.09% gap) and reached 1,496,622 points by 11:05 a.m., a total of 2.42% above yesterday. So the equal-weight index started with a smaller opening gap but advanced 0.32% over the next two hours, more than three times the main index's 0.1%. The translation: the fresh money that arrived after 9 a.m. went mostly to small and mid-cap symbols rather than the index heavyweights. The Iran Fara Bourse index, up 2.65% at 42,739 points, sits above both and confirms the same reading. We have tracked this divergence in our Sunday midday report as well.

Turnover on the main exchange board reached about 14,572 billion tomans across 251,053 trades by 11 a.m. For comparison, yesterday's full session came in around 25,700 billion tomans, so today's turnover is tracking yesterday's rhythm through the half-session, and the price jump has not been accompanied by a collapse in volume.

The money side has news too. In yesterday's session, 2 August, exchange-traded fund turnover was 45.5 trillion tomans and net retail buying was a positive 201 billion tomans, but the breakdown showed a much larger reshuffle: retail investors pulled 1,270 billion tomans out of fixed-income funds and moved 870 billion tomans into equity and mixed funds and 601 billion tomans into commodity funds (Securities and Exchange Organization research management, as reported by Eghtesad Online, 2 August). That flow is the backdrop to the orders that settled in this morning's pre-opening auction. On the structural side, two of today's items point the same way: the 443 trillion tomans of four-month capital-market fundraising and the authorization of investment funds in private-financing instruments (SENA, 3 August).

Currency: a market that all but stopped today

In Tehran's currency market, at 11:05 a.m. today the free-market dollar was bid at 189,150 tomans and offered at 191,050 tomans (Alanchand). The same source showed an ask of 191,150 tomans at 8:05 a.m., so the entire morning's move was a 100-toman decline, effectively nothing. That is itself the news: the currency market had run above 193,000 tomans on Saturday, 1 August, and then fell 6,000 tomans on Sunday to 187,000 tomans on the banknote rate (Donya-e-Eqtesad, 3 August). Today, that same market sat still in the face of the talks headlines, and the entire reaction migrated to equities.

On the official side, the Exchange Center's remittance dollar was 15,361,600 rials this morning, about 153,616 tomans on the ask, up 0.18%. On these figures the gap between the free and remittance rates is about 24%. Bourse News calculated the same gap at 26% on 2 August and added that since the start of 1404 the narrowest recorded gap has been 3%, the widest 82% and the period average 33%. So today's gap remains below the average of the past year and a half, and is slowly closing.

Other free-market rates at the same 11:05 a.m. reading (Alanchand): euro 220,200 tomans, pound 254,500 tomans, UAE dirham 51,650 tomans, Turkish lira 4,080 tomans, Chinese yuan 28,380 tomans and 100 Iraqi dinars 12,540 tomans on the ask.

Gold and coin: a board that did not move

A gram of 18-karat gold was 18,329,560 tomans at 11:05 a.m. today, just 0.04% above yesterday's close. A mesghal of melted gold was recorded at 79,400,000 tomans on the same 0.04% gain. The Emami coin traded at 183,500,000 tomans (up 0.27%) and the Bahar Azadi coin at 179,000,000 tomans (up 0.56%); the Emami figure matches today's Eghtesad Online report exactly. The half coin at 94,000,000 tomans and the quarter coin at 52,500,000 tomans were unchanged.

The premiums repeat this week's familiar picture: the Emami coin premium (hobab) is 868,000 tomans, or 0.48%, while the quarter-coin premium is 6,647,000 tomans, or 14.5%. The small denominations remain the most expensive corner of this market, and a quarter-coin buyer pays several times the full coin's premium rate per piece.

Today's mechanism is simple. The rial price of gold is the product of the global ounce and the dollar rate, and today both legs were near flat: spot gold in a $4,055 to $4,065 range (depending on the moment of measurement, 0.3% to 0.5% higher) and the free-market dollar effectively motionless. So the domestic board had no reason to move either. Worth noting: spot silver, at $57.96 and up 0.66%, outpaced gold today. In the capital market, gold fund units were trading roughly 0.6% to 1% higher at 11 a.m., slightly more than the metal itself.

Crypto: a mild retreat

In the crypto market, Bitcoin was recorded at $62,759 at 10:08 a.m. today, down 1.06% over 24 hours, while Alanchand showed $62,695 at 11:05 a.m. Ethereum was $1,847 at the same minute. Two sources, one mildly negative picture.

The Tether rate in Tehran was 192,224 tomans, about 0.6% above the cash dollar at the same hour. That small premium is the most readable indicator of precautionary dollar demand in the domestic market, and today, as this morning, it stayed narrow. The standing reminder for this section: the toman price of any cryptocurrency has the dollar rate embedded in it, so a Bitcoin that is flat in dollars can still move up and down in tomans.

Iron and steel: the only commodity board that rose today

Unlike oil, rebar prices rose today, 3 August. Arian Foulad 10 mm A3 grade ex-works was recorded at 71,360 tomans per kilogram, 910 tomans or 1.29% above 2 August. The A2 grade in the same size was 71,270 tomans (up 1.29%), 12 mm rebar in both grades 70,090 tomans and 14 mm A3 rebar 70,000 tomans, both up around 1.3%.

Why did domestic steel get more expensive while oil was falling? Because the driver of this board is not the global energy price but the rial cost of production and freight. Per Donya-e-Eqtesad on 3 August, added risk has put between $1,500 and $3,000 onto the shipping cost of each container, and a container that previously came from China to Iran for about $3,000 now costs roughly $12,000 by road and about $9,500 by rail. That cost lands in the ex-works price long before it dissolves into any global benchmark.

At the Iran Mercantile Exchange, today's offering basket is 503,428 tons (Kalakhabar, 3 August), far lighter than the previous working day, when the trading floors hosted more than 3,214,000 tons of offerings and 2,412,000 tons were traded on the day. Swings in this volume depend mainly on producers' offering calendars, not on shifting demand.

Cars: prices down, queues thinner

The car market was red again today. Per Eghtesad Online on 3 August, the Peugeot 207 Automatic Panorama fell 32 million tomans to 2,680 million tomans, the Tara Automatic V4 fell 24 million tomans to 2,575 million tomans and Saipa's Shahin Automatic fell 32 million tomans to 2,300 million tomans. The Atlas G was unchanged at 1,540 million tomans.

The more telling figure comes from the demand side. In Iran Khodro's fourteenth sales round, 861,285 people registered for 53,900 units, whereas more than 1,700,000 had taken part in the round held in early Tir; a 49.4% drop in one month. Against last Dey (December to January), when applicants numbered about 10 million, demand has shrunk by more than 91% (Khabar Online, 3 August). Market analysts point to higher factory prices and the narrowing gap between factory and market prices as the main cause, which is precisely what kills the speculative incentive.

Materials: flat prices, heavy demand

Cement prices did not move today, 3 August. A ton of bulk Portland type 2 cement was 3,937,000 tomans at Tehran Cement and 3,593,000 tomans at Abyek Cement, both equal to the previous day. The 50 kg bag of the same product was 291,000 tomans in Tehran, 289,000 tomans at Abyek and 260,000 tomans at Saveh.

Demand, though, is heavy: per Kalakhabar on 3 August, in the week to 31 July, 4,546 buyers from 30 provinces sourced 1,078,033 tons of cement through the Iran Mercantile Exchange, and cement was the highest-volume commodity traded on the physical market that week. Tehran led with 103,050 tons, followed by Isfahan with 81,015 tons and Markazi with 64,900 tons. In the capital market, cement fund units were trading between 2.5% and 3% higher at 11 a.m. today, meaning the sector's equities reacted well ahead of its product price.

Regional and global backdrop

Oil remains the biggest loser of the past 24 hours. Brent was recorded at $83.11 at 10:08 a.m. today, down 5.79%; Donya-e-Eqtesad, citing price providers early today, put Brent at $83.77 (down 4.73%) and West Texas Intermediate at $80.64 (down 4.76%). The cautious summary: Brent in the $83 channel with a decline in the 5% to 6% range. The channel to Tehran is direct, because this same drop is the unwinding of the Hormuz risk premium that is repricing refinery and metals stocks here today.

In global currencies, the day's news came from Tokyo: Japan's Ministry of Finance and the US Treasury formally confirmed a joint yen-buying intervention carried out on 31 July, the first coordinated intervention by the two since 2011 (Al Jazeera, 3 August). Its effect is visible on the board today: the dollar-yen rate was at 156.70 at 10:08 a.m., down 0.48%. This news reaches Tehran through the dollar index, reported at 99.72 on 3 August and 0.20% lower; a weaker global dollar means a more expensive gold ounce and ultimately higher rial gold.

In the neighborhood, 100 Iraqi dinars sold for 12,540 tomans today, the UAE dirham for 51,650 tomans and the Turkish lira for 4,080 tomans (Alanchand, 11:05 a.m.); the dirham is the main channel for imports from Dubai, the dinar the channel for non-oil trade through Iraq, and the lira the channel for overland trade with Türkiye. Two warnings are also on the table: early today an explosion was reported close to a tanker 20 nautical miles northeast of Oman's Khasab port, with no harm to the vessel or crew (Donya-e-Eqtesad, citing ISNA and UKMTO, 3 August), and the number of ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb strait fell to 18 on Sunday, about 36% fewer than two days earlier (Kpler data, as reported by Eghtesad Online, 3 August). De-escalation, in other words, is not yet uniform.

The takeaway

Today's verdict: stocks won, but not in today's session. Some 96% of the main index's 2.38% gain had settled into the pre-opening orders before the first print at 9:05 a.m., and the market advanced only 0.1% in the two hours that followed, while the dollar slipped 100 tomans and a gram of gold rose 0.04%. Why it matters: a gain that is born in the opening auction is the market's overnight opinion about a headline, not the outcome of today's buying and selling, and the headline behind it is still unconfirmed. The one thing to remember: when the jump happens in the pre-opening auction and the session flattens out afterwards, the market has accepted the price but has not yet built it.

What to watch today

• The second half of the Tehran session to 12:30 p.m., and whether the main index holds the opening gap or gives part of it back.
• Whether the equal-weight index and the Iran Fara Bourse keep outpacing the main index into the closing hours.
• This afternoon: the new round of US-Iran talks whose start was announced for today.
• The refinery group's response to Brent settling in the $83 channel.
• Today's Iran Mercantile Exchange offerings within the 503,000-ton basket, especially the industrial floor.
• The block offering of a 65.05% controlling stake in Movalled Niroogahi Tejarat Fars on 15 August on the Iran Fara Bourse second market (SENA, 2 August). Follow upcoming events on the Sahmino calendar.

All figures in this report carry their reference time and date, and market rates change through the day. The Tehran session was open at the time of publication and its figures are not final. The analytical passages here are cautious observations, not buy or sell advice.