Iran Market Pulse opens on the Farabourse, Sunday, September 13, 2026: 72 percent of Saturday's Farabourse turnover went to government debt as the Tehran bourse index set a sixth straight record at 7,277,556

1. Lead

Saturday, 21 Shahrivar 1405 (September 12, 2026) will be remembered for the Tehran Stock Exchange's record close, but the bigger number of the day was recorded somewhere else. At Iran Farabourse, of 85.31 trillion tomans in total turnover, 61.07 trillion tomans landed on 22 government debt tickers: 71.6 percent of one market's turnover, sitting on government borrowing. That sum on its own is 1.39 times the entire Tehran Stock Exchange turnover in the same session.

The same day, the Tehran Stock Exchange main index (TEDPIX) rose 155,269 points, or 2.18 percent, to close at 7,277,556, a sixth consecutive gaining session and the highest close recorded in our series. The Farabourse main index also rose 1,063 points, or 1.92 percent, to 56,282. The market opens today at 9am, and these readings belong to the 13:24 close of Saturday's session.

2. Today's snapshot

3. Today's headlines

• At Iran's 14th Islamic government bond auction, only 20.45 trillion tomans of the 46.92 trillion tomans offered was sold, or 43.6 percent; cumulative sales across 14 auctions reached 304.38 trillion tomans, 29.5 percent of the 1,030 trillion toman target in the 1405 budget, and the banking network's share of this auction was just 2.2 percent (Ecoiran, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).
• The Tehran Stock Exchange main index rose 2.18 percent and set a sixth consecutive record; 89 percent of tickers closed higher and about 5,500 billion tomans of retail money entered the equity market (Donya-e-Eqtesad, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).
• The free market dollar eased 0.33 percent to 234,770 tomans on Saturday morning and climbed back to 236,540 tomans in the afternoon; the market was simultaneously pricing the Iran Oman agreement on the Strait of Hormuz, due to be signed Monday 23 Shahrivar (September 14), and expectations of new US sanctions the same day (Ecoiran and Donya-e-Eqtesad, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).
• The probability of a US Federal Reserve rate increase at its September 15 and 16 meeting (24 and 25 Shahrivar) reached 86.9 percent on CME FedWatch data (Arzdigital, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).
• The real value of the average Iranian purchase in Mordad 1405 fell 1.3 percent from Mordad 1404, even as transaction counts grew (Ecoiran, based on the Shaparak report, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).

4. Currency

The free market dollar was recorded at 233,900 tomans in its last Saturday reading at 19:59, with a day range of 233,660 to 237,020 tomans. Two press readings the same day were higher: Donya-e-Eqtesad reported 236,540 tomans at 14:29 and Ecoiran 236,100 tomans. The discrepancy is real and comes from the hour of the reading, not from a contradiction between sources: the day range contains both. The euro closed at 272,260 tomans.

On the official side, the Iran Currency and Gold Exchange Center's remittance dollar sell rate was recorded at 163,413 tomans on Saturday at 08:17, with a buy rate of 161,943 tomans. The gap between the free rate and the remittance rate is 70,487 tomans, meaning the free rate stands 43.1 percent higher. In yesterday's report that gap was 73,051 tomans and 44.8 percent, so it narrowed by 2,564 tomans and 1.7 percentage points in one session. The two rates are set by two different mechanisms: free market supply and demand versus administrative allocation for imports and designated uses, and that difference in mechanism is what explains the existence of the gap.

In global currency markets, the euro against the dollar stands at 1.1598, sterling against the dollar at 1.3525, and the dollar against the yen at 153.50 (Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12, 00:55).

5. Gold and coin

The gold and coin market entered a limited correction on Saturday. 18 karat gold closed at 23,916,800 tomans per gram, 264,600 tomans and 1.09 percent below Thursday 19 Shahrivar's reading; the Emami coin closed at 239,495,000 tomans, 1,515,000 tomans and 0.63 percent lower. The mesghal of gold, after setting a 104,905,000 toman high the same day, settled at 103,604,000 tomans. Spot gold over the same span was virtually unmoved at 4,350.36 dollars.

The Emami coin premium (hobab, the part of the price that is not the metal) stands at 661,000 tomans against an intrinsic value of 233,418,800 tomans; that is, only 0.28 percent of the coin's price is something other than gold and its minting cost. Historically that is a small figure, and it says the coin's price at this level comes almost entirely from gold and the exchange rate rather than from buyer enthusiasm. The Bahar Azadi coin premium, however, is 49,160,000 tomans and the quarter coin premium 49,770,000 tomans: the smaller pieces still command far larger premiums.

On the exchange board, the Lotus gold fund fell 0.68 percent to 166,875 tomans on Saturday, on a day the main index rose 2.18 percent. Jam-e Tala was virtually unchanged at 2,139.9 tomans.

6. Bourse and Farabourse

The Tehran Stock Exchange and the Farabourse are two separate markets with two separate indices, and both rose on Saturday. The Tehran Stock Exchange main index rose 155,269 points, or 2.18 percent, to close at 7,277,556, a sixth consecutive gaining session; the equal weight index rose 30,270 points, or 1.56 percent, to 1,972,582. The Farabourse main index, a separate index on a separate market, rose 1,063 points, or 1.92 percent, to 56,282.

This time the other side of the trade moved with the index. In our own data, retail investors were net buyers of 5,142,778,973 shares across the whole market on Saturday: 4,355,409,504 shares on the Tehran Stock Exchange and 667,102,664 shares on the Farabourse. That is a full reversal from the prior session, when on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar (September 9) the same group was a net seller of 3,243,960,818 shares market wide. These figures count share numbers and not rial values, and they say nothing about the intent or future behaviour of either group.

Now the Farabourse half, which is where today's number lives. Total Farabourse turnover in Saturday's session was 853,145,865 million rials, or 85.31 trillion tomans, against 439,734,541 million rials, or 43.97 trillion tomans, on the Tehran Stock Exchange; that is, the smaller market moved 1.94 times the money of the larger one. Opening the same session ticker by ticker shows why: 22 Farabourse government debt tickers, each turning over more than 1,000 billion rials, together traded 610,725,282 million rials, or 61.07 trillion tomans. The arithmetic is simple: 61.07 divided by 85.31 is 71.6 percent. Of every hundred tomans traded on the Farabourse that session, at least 72 tomans sat on government debt, and that 61.07 trillion tomans is by itself 1.39 times the entire Tehran Stock Exchange turnover the same day.

Two points keep this number precise. First, it is a floor and not a ceiling: we have counted only tickers whose turnover exceeded 1,000 billion rials, so smaller bond tickers are not inside that 71.6 percent and the true share is higher. Second, this is one session and not a trend; establishing a trend means repeating the same calculation across several sessions. The heaviest ticker, Akhza2104, turned over 135,833,842 million rials, or 13.58 trillion tomans, by itself, which is 15.9 percent of the whole Farabourse in a single ticker. By contrast, only four Farabourse equity tickers turned over more than 1,000 billion rials (Dabalak, Samahriz, Ehya and Behpak), totalling about 0.78 trillion tomans, less than one percent of that market's turnover.

The mechanism can be connected to this number with one dated news item, without constructing an extra causal claim. That same Saturday, the result of the 14th Islamic government bond auction was published: of 46.92 trillion tomans offered, 20.45 trillion tomans sold, and the entire banking network's share of the buying was just 2.2 percent, with the rest financed through the capital market (Ecoiran, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12). Two facts side by side: the government sells less than half its offering in the primary market, and the secondary market for that same paper on the Farabourse holds the capital market's single largest flow of cash. For someone holding shares, this means a large part of the money entering the capital market reaches government debt on the way, before it ever reaches the equity board.

This morning's pre opening board at 07:49 shows buy queues on the heavyweights: Foulad with 704,579,085 shares bid at 296.7 tomans, Vamadan with 340,179,904 shares at 341 tomans, Shasta with 161,306,464 shares at 331 tomans, Fameli with 138,106,459 shares at 2,608 tomans, and Ahrom with 31,853,699 shares at 6,709.8 tomans. These are live pre opening readings and they change within the session. In Saturday's close, Fameli, Shasta, Vamadan, Ahrom, Khodro and Shepna all six reached their highest levels in a year, and Foulad recorded its highest close since 30 Dey 1404 (January 20, 2026). Consecutive gaining sessions as of that close: Fameli 13 sessions, Shasta and Ahrom 6 each, and Foulad 5. Vapars traded 2.46 times its twenty session average volume. The Base Market (bazaar-e paye), the shallower and more volatile board inside the Farabourse with wider price bands and more frequent halts, recorded no notable event in our data.

7. Crypto

Bitcoin stands at 77,204 dollars this morning, Sunday 22 Shahrivar (September 13) at 07:50, up 30 dollars or 0.04 percent. In the domestic market, Tether stands at 233,606 tomans, up 1,398 tomans or 0.6 percent.

One measurable change from yesterday: domestic Tether now sits 294 tomans below the last free market dollar reading (233,900 tomans), or 0.13 percent under it. In yesterday's report the same Tether stood 1,686 tomans above the free dollar. When the banknote market is closed Tether usually trades at a premium, and that premium has now disappeared; this reading needs to be measured again once the banknote market reopens today. From this market's global news, the bitcoin sentiment index climbed above 89 and entered extreme greed territory, while US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of 462.7 million dollars over recent trading days (Arzdigital, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).

8. Iron and steel

The rebar family has had no fresh settlement on the Iran Mercantile Exchange since Wednesday 18 Shahrivar (September 9), and that is a genuine gap in trading rather than a feed delay. The last settlements: ribbed rebar A3 sizes 14 to 20 at 858,102 rials per kilogram, or 85,810 tomans, and sizes 22 to 32 at 872,721 rials, or 87,272 tomans. Arian Foulad factory rates as recorded on Saturday 21 Shahrivar (September 12): rebar 14 A3 at 85,910 tomans, 12 A3 at 86,730 tomans, 10 A3 at 87,270 tomans, 12 A2 at 86,000 tomans, and 10 A2 at 87,180 tomans. The gap between the factory rate for rebar 14 and the last exchange settlement for the same size is 100 tomans, or 0.12 percent: the market and the official board for this family are standing on effectively one number. Globally, Shanghai rebar stands at 3,071 yuan per tonne (Thursday 19 Shahrivar / September 10, 19:02).

9. Cars

Recorded prices for domestic cars showed no material change in Saturday 21 Shahrivar's reading: the Dena Plus Turbo Automatic Optional 1405 at 3,250,000,000 tomans and the 1404 model at 3,100,000,000 tomans, the Dena Plus 6 speed 1405 at 2,470,000,000 and the 1404 model at 2,370,000,000 tomans. The movement was in the imported and assembled half: the Mercedes Benz C200 L jumped 1,500 million tomans, or 8.1 percent, to 20 billion tomans, and the Volkswagen ID4 rose 900 million tomans, or 9.5 percent, to 10.35 billion tomans, while the Lamari Ima rose 6.8 percent to 6.3 billion tomans (Ecoiran, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12). The same report notes that part of this rise reflects these models catching up on price gains they missed last week rather than a direct reaction to the dollar, since the automatic Peugeot 207 Panorama fell 20 million tomans the same day. On the board, the Khodro ticker reached its highest level in a year at 76.4 tomans.

10. Building materials

Cement received a fresh settlement on Saturday 21 Shahrivar (September 12). Cement type 2 (42.5) bulk settled at a volume weighted 26,365 rials per kilogram, or 2,636 tomans, slightly above the 2,634 tomans of the 18 Shahrivar session. Cement type 5 (42.5) bulk settled at 2,827 tomans and type 2 (32.5) bulk at 2,510 tomans.

The gap between the official board and the retail shelf remains large: bulk type 2 cement from the Tehran plant was recorded Saturday at 3,217 tomans per kilogram and from the Abyek plant at 3,230 tomans, about 22 percent above the exchange settlement of 2,636 tomans. A 50 kilogram bag of Tehran cement costs 240,000 tomans, which works out to 4,800 tomans per kilogram; the bulk to bag gap definitionally contains the cost of the bag, packaging and distribution, and should not be read as a profit margin. Cement funds were mixed in Saturday's close: Simana up 2.56 percent at 4,164.9 tomans, Simania up 1.98 percent at 4,070 tomans, Simano up 0.31 percent at 4,309.6 tomans, and the Ciman fund down 0.34 percent at 1,127.1 tomans.

11. Regional and global view

Brent crude stands at 104.61 dollars, above the 100 dollar mark (Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12, 04:51), after a week that closed with a gain of nearly 13 percent according to Al Jazeera; the backdrop was Friday 20 Shahrivar's (September 11) drone attack on Saudi Arabia's East to West oil pipeline, which forced Riyadh to halt that line. This price reaches Tehran through two channels: export revenue on one side, and shipping and insurance costs on imports on the other. Baghdad also agreed on Saturday to Iran's request for a joint investigation into drone launch platforms near the two countries' shared border (Donya-e-Eqtesad, citing ISNA, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).

The largest event on the global calendar ahead is the Federal Reserve meeting on 24 and 25 Shahrivar (September 15 and 16), where the probability of a rate increase has reached 86.9 percent (Arzdigital, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12); its channel to Tehran runs through the dollar index and the global prices of gold and oil. In the region's currency corridors, Saturday 21 Shahrivar's readings are: the UAE dirham at 64,076 tomans, the effective rate for a large share of Iran's imports through Dubai; 100 Iraqi dinars at 15,290 tomans, which sets the price of cross border trade in Iran's west; the Chinese yuan at 35,210 tomans, the settlement rate of the main buyer of Iranian oil; the Turkish lira at 4,940 tomans, which determines the cost of trade and travel through Türkiye; and the Russian ruble at 2,791 tomans, tied to Iran Russia exchanges within the Eurasian Economic Union framework. The 18th BRICS summit is also being held on 21 and 22 Shahrivar (September 12 and 13) in New Delhi, where China's president said Beijing is ready to help ease tensions in West Asia and the Persian Gulf (Donya-e-Eqtesad, citing Mehr and Sputnik, Saturday 21 Shahrivar / September 12).

12. Conclusion

Today's verdict is this: Saturday belonged to government debt, not to equities. The main index's sixth record is real and 89 percent of tickers closed higher, but the capital market's largest flow of cash that day was not on the equity board at all; 71.6 percent of the Farabourse's 85.31 trillion tomans of turnover landed on 22 government debt tickers, a figure that was itself 1.39 times the entire Tehran Stock Exchange turnover. The one thing to remember: when a market's turnover jumps, ask which board the money went to before celebrating, because high turnover and share buying are two different things. Sahmino's reading from yesterday also settled, and it held: it said 18 karat gold would stay above 23 million tomans as long as spot gold stayed above 4,300 dollars and the free market dollar above 230,000 tomans, and all three conditions held (gold 23,916,800 tomans, spot 4,350.36 dollars, dollar 233,900 tomans). Sahmino's new reading: the government debt share of Farabourse turnover stays above 50 percent, as long as the next bond auction sells less than half of what is offered; the level of this reading is 50 percent, its horizon is the end of the week, and a fall in the bond share below 40 percent in two consecutive sessions invalidates it (reading dated 22 Shahrivar 1405 / September 13, 2026).

13. What to watch today

• The 9am opening of the Tehran Stock Exchange and the fate of the pre opening buy queues on Foulad, Vamadan, Shasta, Fameli and Ahrom; and whether the main index records a seventh consecutive gaining session.
• The government debt share of Farabourse turnover in today's session, to establish whether Saturday's 71.6 percent was one session or a pattern.
• The first banknote market pricing today, and which way the Tether premium over the free market dollar turns, having been 1,686 tomans positive yesterday and 294 tomans negative this morning.
• The signing of the Iran Oman agreement on the Strait of Hormuz on Monday 23 Shahrivar (September 14), and news on the new US sanctions expected to be announced the same day.
• The Federal Reserve meeting on 24 and 25 Shahrivar (September 15 and 16), with an 86.9 percent probability of a rate increase, and its effect on spot gold and oil.
• A fresh settlement for the rebar family on the Iran Mercantile Exchange, last recorded on 18 Shahrivar (September 9). The Sahmino market calendar shows upcoming events at a glance.