Tehran's Main Index Jumped 1.85 Percent Today to a Record High; Iran Market Pulse, Tuesday Midday, Shahrivar 3, 1405; Bitcoin Topped $81,000 as China's Iran Oil Imports Fell to a Multi-Month Low

Lead

Tehran's main index, TEDPIX, jumped 1.85 percent (112,999 points) from yesterday's close by 10:59 am Tehran time today, Tuesday, Shahrivar 3, 1405 (August 25, 2026), reaching 6,212,955 points, an all-time high, according to the Tehran Stock Exchange's direct feed, which Sahmino logs every ten minutes. The equal-weight index rose 1.36 percent to 1,763,795 points, a sign the rally was not confined to large-cap names. Today's jump comes on the same day the US Treasury Department published further details of what it calls "Operation Economic Outcast," and according to Oilprice.com, China's imports of Iranian crude fell to roughly 534,000 barrels a day in August, down from more than two-thirds of July's level. Elsewhere, Bitcoin topped $81,148 overnight, while the free-market dollar and domestic gold, unlike recent days, held largely steady today.

Today's Snapshot

Today's Top Headlines

• The US Treasury detailed "Operation Economic Outcast," sanctioning nearly 60 individuals, entities and vessels across digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping, while sparing major Chinese banks (Oilprice.com, citing Reuters, Shahrivar 3 morning).
• China's imports of Iranian crude fell to about 534,000 barrels a day in August, down from 823,000 barrels a day in July (Reuters, in the same Oilprice.com report).
• Central Bank Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati said monthly inflation in Mordad was about 4 percent; year-on-year inflation reached 84.9 percent, with liquidity growth running at 55 to 56 percent (Donya-e-Eqtesad, Sunday, Shahrivar 1).
• The central bank accepted just 16.6 percent of banks' 419.9 trillion toman weekly open-market demand, a sign of continued monetary tightening (Ecoiran, Shahrivar 3 morning).
• Bitcoin jumped 4.18 percent over 24 hours overnight to top $81,148, lifting its total market value to about $1.62 trillion (Arzdigital, Shahrivar 3 morning).

Currency

The free-market dollar on Sahmino's price board was unchanged from yesterday evening at 202,195 tomans; below this week's overnight record but in the same range. TGJU's live quote at 11:04am today confirmed the same level, with an intraday range of 201,670 to 203,020 tomans; unlike recent days, the free-market dollar is having a quiet session today. On the official channel, the Iran Exchange Center's agreed-rate dollar reached 157,481 tomans at 8:02am today, up 280 tomans (0.18 percent) from the prior day. The gap between the official rate and the free market has widened to about 44,714 tomans (roughly 28 percent). Today's relative calm in the dollar comes against the backdrop of Governor Hemmati's remarks yesterday that monthly inflation eased to about 4 percent in Mordad, and that the central bank has supplied an average of $175 million a day in foreign currency since the start of the Iranian year, versus $205 million a day in the same period last year, a decline that could explain part of the pressure easing off the free market.

Gold and Coin

Unlike the bourse, and unlike its own recent multi-day trend, Tehran's gold and coin market had a quiet day. According to the Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union, cited by Ecoiran this morning, 18-karat gold traded at 22,060,200 tomans per gram and 24-karat at 29,410,000 tomans, a slight increase from yesterday. The coin market moved in mixed directions: the new-design coin rose to 219,600,000 tomans and the old-design coin to 218,500,000 tomans, with the one-gram coin also higher, while the half coin fell to 112,000,000 tomans and the quarter coin to 59,500,000 tomans, a divergence that likely reflects each denomination's own supply and demand rather than a uniform move in gold. On Sahmino's own board, transactional 18-karat gold stood at 19,769,100 tomans at 10:59am today, down a marginal 0.01 percent; that figure is not directly comparable to the union's retail rate, since one reflects a trading price and the other a consumer market rate. The main driver of today's calm is spot gold, which slipped 0.23 percent to $4,638.90, while the free-market dollar, as noted above, also held steady; for the first time in several days, neither of domestic gold's usual two drivers pushed higher.

Bourse and Farabourse

Iran's two equity markets both rose today, though at different speeds. TEDPIX, as noted in the lead, jumped 1.85 percent (112,999 points) by 10:59am to 6,212,955 points, an all-time high; trading value on the bourse reached about 22,067 billion tomans across 556,779 trades by that hour, versus a full day's 41,317 billion tomans yesterday, meaning today's volume already exceeded half of yesterday's entire session. The Farabourse index, which is separate from Tehran's main index, rose a milder 1.3 percent (635 points) to 49,662 points; its trading value reached about 52,326 billion tomans across 317,700 trades by the same hour. Today's retail-versus-institutional flow data has not yet posted to Sahmino's system; the latest available figure is from yesterday, Monday, when net retail inflow across the whole equity market was a roughly balanced 377 million rials.

On the board, IRDR (Iran Daroo) and DJBR (Djaber Ebne Hayyan Pharmaceutical) both hit their 3 percent buy-queue ceiling, extending yesterday's gains; IRDR is building its 19th consecutive higher session. PNES (Isfahan Oil Refining) is also in a buy queue, up 2.95 percent, a reversal from yesterday's negative open. IKCO (Iran Khodro) is trading in a buy queue up 2.64 percent, extending an eighth consecutive higher session after reaching its highest price in a year yesterday. BMLT (Bank Mellat) rose a milder 1.05 percent to 1,439 rials, its fifth consecutive higher session. On the corporate-actions side, Asiatech (a 260-rial dividend per share, 41 percent payout ratio) and Sefaars (a 3,520-rial dividend, 92.7 percent payout ratio) both approved cash dividends last week; both filings are posted on Codal.

Crypto

Bitcoin reached $80,625 at 10:58am today, up 2.52 percent from yesterday's close; according to Arzdigital, the coin jumped 4.18 percent over the prior 24 hours overnight, crossing above $81,148 before settling around $80,698, lifting its total market value to about $1.62 trillion with daily trading volume around $60 billion. Some analysts see the move as a sign of the crypto market's positive trend returning. Tether against the rial, meanwhile, held almost flat, reaching 201,944 tomans at 10:59am; unlike Bitcoin's global jump, the domestic tether market today tracked the calm free-market dollar rather than crypto's excitement.

Steel

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, the last settlement for A3 rebar (14 to 20mm) was 70,048 tomans per kilogram, from Wednesday, August 19, the category's most recent trading session. In the free market, Aryan Steel's 10mm A3 rebar is priced today, Tuesday, at a factory rate of 74,550 tomans per kilogram, about 6.4 percent above the exchange's last settlement, though the two figures are dated three days apart (August 19 and 25). The steel sub-sector recorded no fresh pricing event on Sahmino's board today; the gap between free-market and exchange rebar prices, as in recent weeks, persists.

Cars

Saipa's Pride 151, depending on trim, is priced in the free market today between 1.08 billion and 1.18 billion tomans, unchanged in Sahmino's data from yesterday. IKCO's stock, however, as noted in the bourse section, is trading in a buy queue up 2.64 percent today, building an eighth consecutive higher session; yesterday's trading volume ran about 2.15 times its twenty-session average. Saipa's no-lottery sale of the Quick, Arya and Pars Nova models, which began Sunday, is continuing; free-market price reaction to the plan is not yet visible in today's data.

Building Materials

On the commodity exchange, Type 2 (42.5) bagged cement settled yesterday, Monday, at a rate near 3,857 tomans per kilogram. In Tehran's retail market, a 50-kilogram bag of the same grade from the Abyek brand is priced today at 289,000 tomans (about 5,780 tomans per kilogram), and Tehran Cement at 291,000 tomans; the visible gap with the exchange's bulk rate mostly reflects bagging and distribution costs rather than a fundamental shift in the cement market. Among bourse cement funds, Sima and Simaf both rose 3 percent today and Farabourse's Daryaf gained 2.22 percent, a move more in line with the broad equity rally than a cement-specific driver.

Regional and Global

Brent crude eased 0.42 percent to $91.59 at 10:58am today. Against that backdrop, according to Oilprice.com, citing Reuters, the US Treasury this morning published details of the first phase of "Operation Economic Outcast," sanctioning nearly 60 individuals, entities and "shadow fleet" vessels across the UAE, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Switzerland and Europe, while sparing the major Chinese banks that buy more than 80 percent of Iran's seaborne oil exports; even so, Reuters data in the same report showed China's Iranian crude imports falling to about 534,000 barrels a day in August, from 823,000 barrels a day in July. Separately, India's Russian oil imports hit a record 2.6 million barrels a day in June and July, more than double February's level, according to the Financial Times and Kepler, carried by Donya-e-Eqtesad; French energy major TotalEnergies said yesterday it will invest in two pipelines designed to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, the Habshan-to-Fujairah line in the UAE and a planned Baghdad-to-Syria line. The strain on Gulf energy routes has reached East Asia too: Japan's power prices jumped 20 percent in a week to their highest since January 2023, according to Oilprice.com, largely because LNG prices have doubled since before the Iran war. Goldman Sachs has warned that if the Strait of Hormuz crisis persists, European gas prices will need to top 100 euros per megawatt hour by December for winter storage to fill; European gas storage is currently only 62 percent full, the lowest for this time of year in nearly two decades. In global equities, the US S&P 500 eased 0.28 percent overnight to 7,652 points, and the dollar against the Turkish lira was little changed today, trading near 48.1.

Bottom Line

Unlike recent days, when gold and the dollar led, Tehran's bourse had the stage to itself today: TEDPIX alone hit a record, while gold and the free-market dollar both stayed calm. One thing to remember: today's bourse record landed on the very day the US published fresh sanctions details and China's Iranian oil imports visibly declined; at least today, equities answered sanctions risk not by fleeing but by pulling money into large-cap names.

What to Watch Today

• The 12:30pm close: does TEDPIX hold on to today's intraday record through the end of the session?
• Market reaction to further details of the US "Operation Economic Outcast" in the hours and days ahead.
• Whether August's drop in China's Iranian oil imports shapes the coming months or proves temporary.
• Today's retail-versus-institutional flow data, which posts with a lag; whether real money moved in step with the index's rally.

Follow upcoming economic events and shareholder assemblies on Sahmino's economic calendar. For yesterday's session, read yesterday's Market Pulse.