Tehran's One Month Gold and Coin Rally Was Not the Ounce's Doing: Ounce Zero Percent, 18 Karat Gold 26.7 and the Coin 27.5 Percent (Iran Market Pulse, Saturday 21 Shahrivar 1405 / 12 September 2026)

1. Lead

The past month in Tehran's gold market was not gold's month. In the TGJU series, spot gold stands at $4,350.36 today, Saturday 21 Shahrivar 1405 (12 September 2026) at 00:56, against $4,351.71 on the matching day a month earlier, Thursday 22 Mordad 1405: one dollar and 35 cents lower, a fall of 0.03 percent. Over the same stretch 18 karat gold went from 19,079,400 tomans on Saturday 24 Mordad to 24,181,400 tomans, 26.74 percent higher, and the Emami coin from 189,005,000 to 241,010,000 tomans, 27.51 percent higher.

The domestic gold price is by definition the spot ounce multiplied by the exchange rate, so when one side of that product stays essentially untouched and the result rises 26.74 percent, the other side did the work: the free market dollar went from 187,005 to 235,975 tomans over the same window, 26.18 percent higher. Those two figures, 26.74 and 26.18, are only 0.56 percentage points apart. The Tehran bourse's last trading session was Wednesday 18 Shahrivar, and the market opens today at 09:00.

2. Today's snapshot

3. Today's headlines

• Brent crude crossed the $100 mark over the weekend and stands at $104.61 today, Saturday 21 Shahrivar at 04:51, against a reading of $99.28 on the morning of Wednesday 18 Shahrivar in the same series, roughly 5.4 percent higher (Sahmino price series, Saturday 21 Shahrivar).
• Axios and Reuters reported on Friday 20 Shahrivar that Washington turned down Riyadh's request to strike Ansar Allah; Brent travelled $12.8 across four sessions and closed just $5.4 higher (Axios and Reuters, Friday 20 Shahrivar).
• Over the month to today, spot gold fell 0.03 percent while the Emami coin rose 27.51 percent, 18 karat gold 26.74 percent, the free market dollar 26.18 percent and bitcoin 21.79 percent (TGJU, Saturday 21 Shahrivar).
• The highest Emami coin price recorded in the TGJU series is 242,010,000 tomans, set on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar 1405; Thursday's reading sits 1,000,000 tomans, or 0.41 percent, below that peak (TGJU, Saturday 21 Shahrivar).
• Vomaadan (Mines and Metals Development) traded on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar after opening 10.29 percent above the previous session's close, and reached its highest level in a year at 331.3 tomans (Sahmino board events, Saturday 21 Shahrivar, 07:52).

4. Currency

The currency market has been shut since Thursday afternoon and the latest readings belong to that hour. In Sahmino's daily series the free market dollar was recorded at 235,975 tomans on Thursday 19 Shahrivar at 16:59, and the tavafoghi dollar at 236,005 tomans. Alanchand this morning, Saturday 21 Shahrivar at 07:50, quotes the dollar's sell rate at 236,900 and its buy rate at 234,550 tomans, which places Thursday's reading in the middle of the two.

On the official side, the remittance dollar's sell rate at the Iran Currency and Gold Exchange Centre was recorded at 162,924 tomans on Thursday at 09:38, with a buy rate of 161,458 tomans. These two rates are set by two different mechanisms: free market supply and demand against administrative allocation for imports and specified uses, and it is that difference in mechanism which explains the distance between them. The gap between the two readings is 73,051 tomans, meaning the free rate sits 44.8 percent above the remittance rate. The two readings do not share an hour and must each be read with its own.

In global currency markets, the euro against the dollar is at 1.1598 tonight at 00:45, 0.04 percent higher; sterling against the dollar at 1.3525, 0.01 percent lower; and the dollar against the yen at 153.50, 0.11 percent lower (Saturday 21 Shahrivar, 00:55).

5. Gold and coin

This is today's section, because the figure inside it comes from a direction most people do not expect. Three independent readings place the gram of 18 karat gold in the same range: TGJU at 24,181,400 tomans (Thursday 19 Shahrivar, 16:59), Milli Gold at 24,155,000 tomans (Saturday 21 Shahrivar, 07:54), and the guild trade rate in Sahmino's series at 24,225,100 tomans to sell and 24,044,500 tomans to buy (Saturday 21 Shahrivar, 07:44). The spread between the highest and lowest of the three is 0.3 percent.

Now the same one month calculation, row by row and each with its own date. Spot gold on the matching day a month earlier, Thursday 22 Mordad 1405, was $4,351.71, and today it is $4,350.36: 0.03 percent lower. 18 karat gold on Saturday 24 Mordad 1405 was 19,079,400 tomans and is now 24,181,400 tomans: 5,102,000 tomans and 26.74 percent higher. The Emami coin on that same 24 Mordad was 189,005,000 tomans and is now 241,010,000 tomans: 52,005,000 tomans and 27.51 percent higher (all from the TGJU series, each with its own anchor date). The two anchor dates are two days apart and are written here exactly as they stand.

The mechanism can be stated plainly, because it is definitional rather than interpretive: the domestic gram price is the spot ounce multiplied by the exchange rate (divided by weight and multiplied by purity). When the ounce effectively stays where it was and the domestic gram rises 26.74 percent, the other variable did the work; and the free market dollar rose 26.18 percent over the same window, from 187,005 tomans on 24 Mordad to 235,975 tomans. Those two percentages are 0.56 points apart. Sahmino's own series confirms that anchor independently: in our macro series the free market dollar was recorded at 1,870,050 rials on 24 Mordad 1405, the same figure TGJU gives for that date.

One qualification that limits the claim above: this calculation is about one month, not about every day inside that month. There were days within it when the ounce itself moved; in the TGJU series the ounce is 1.23 percent below last week (Monday 16 Shahrivar, $4,404.98) and 3.1 percent above three months ago (23 Khordad, $4,219.32). So the precise statement is this: summed over the month, the ounce's contribution to Tehran's gold rally was close to zero, not that the ounce stood still throughout.

The same pressure showed on the bourse board. The Gold fund closed Wednesday 18 Shahrivar at 13:25 on 169,220 tomans, 3.57 percent higher, and Jam Gold on 2,144 tomans, 2.99 percent higher; both outran TEDPIX and its 0.67 percent gain in that session. The mesghal of gold was recorded on Thursday at 104,749,000 tomans and second hand gold at 23,858,973 tomans per gram.

6. Bourse and Farabourse

The Tehran Stock Exchange and the Farabourse are two separate markets with two separate indices, and in the last session both rose, though the Farabourse took the larger percentage. TEDPIX closed Wednesday 18 Shahrivar up 47,326 points, or 0.67 percent, at 7,122,270 points, the highest close recorded in our series and its fifth consecutive rising session; the equal weight index rose 5,676 points, or 0.29 percent, to 1,942,319 points; and the Farabourse total index gained 558 points, or 1.02 percent, to 55,220 points. Since the start of Shahrivar (the 6,069,888 point close of 1 Shahrivar) TEDPIX has risen 1,052,382 points, or 17.34 percent. Bourse trade value was 474,065 billion rials, roughly 47.4 trillion tomans, against 46.2 trillion tomans the prior session, with 1,171,996 trades against 1,092,016.

But the other side of the trade did not move with the index. In our own data, retail investors were net sellers of 2,532,773,909 shares on the Tehran exchange on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar (buying 68,322,005,368 shares against selling 70,854,779,277), and net sellers of 762,201,412 shares on the Farabourse, for 3,243,960,818 shares across the whole market. Their share of the bourse board's buy side was 74.4 percent. This is a reversal from the prior session: on Tuesday 17 Shahrivar retail investors were net buyers of 5,215,258,429 shares on the Tehran exchange. These figures count shares rather than rial value, and neither says anything about the intent or the future behaviour of either group. So the index record was set on a day when retail investors were net sellers, and that is precisely the condition last week's reading was hung on.

This morning's pre opening board at 07:52 shows buy queues on the heavyweights: Foolad with 839,708,450 shares at 288.7 tomans, Vomaadan with 261,456,657 shares at 337.8 tomans, Fameli with 184,069,482 shares at 2,533 tomans, Shasta with 46,876,604 shares at 325.4 tomans and Ahrom with 10,247,072 shares at 6,454.4 tomans. These are live pre opening readings and they change within the session, so they must not be read as today's closing prices. In the 18 Shahrivar close, Fameli at 2,533 tomans, Shasta at 322 tomans, Vaparse at 208.9 tomans, Ahrom at 6,451.8 tomans and Vomaadan at 331.3 tomans reached their highest levels in a year, and Foolad at 288.1 tomans recorded its highest close since 1 Bahman 1404. Consecutive rising sessions to that close: Fameli 12, Vaparse 11, Shasta 5, Ahrom 5 and Foolad 4. Vaparse's trading volume ran 4.27 times its twenty session average. The Base Market, the shallower and more volatile board inside the Farabourse with wider bands and more halts, had no notable event recorded in our data.

7. Crypto

Bitcoin stands at $77,302 this morning, Saturday 21 Shahrivar at 07:42, down $121 or 0.16 percent; Alanchand at 07:50 reports the same figure at $77,234. Tether Gold is at $4,349.3 and Bitcoin Cash at $230.45, 0.37 percent higher. In the domestic market, Tether is at 237,661 tomans at 07:44, up 699 tomans or 0.29 percent, and Alanchand puts it at 237,708 tomans.

One measurable point during the closure: domestic Tether today sits 1,686 tomans above the last free market dollar reading (235,975 tomans on Thursday), or 0.71 percent. That distance is ordinary and carries the cost of transfer and domestic platform risk; what makes it worth noting is its freshness, because on a day when the banknote market is shut it is the only live reading of the rial against the dollar. Over the one month window, bitcoin rose 21.79 percent (TGJU), which leaves it behind all four rial denominated assets in this report.

8. Iron and steel

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, A3 rebar in sizes 14 to 20 settled on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar at a weighted average of 858,102 rials per kilogram, or 85,810 tomans, and sizes 22 to 32 on the same date at 872,721 rials, or 87,272 tomans. The factory rate for Arian Foolad A3 rebar in size 14, recorded on Friday 20 Shahrivar, was 85,910 tomans per kilogram, only 100 tomans and 0.12 percent above the exchange settlement. That gap was 3,117 tomans and 3.8 percent in last week's report, so the fresh exchange settlement has closed almost all of it: the market and the official board for this family now stand on one figure. Other factory rates recorded on 20 Shahrivar: Arian Foolad A3 size 10 at 87,270 tomans, A3 size 12 at 86,730 tomans, A2 size 10 at 87,180 tomans and A2 size 12 at 86,000 tomans. Globally, Shanghai rebar stands at 3,071 yuan per tonne in the Friday 20 Shahrivar reading at 19:02. Both the factory and the exchange feeds are daily and publish no daily percentage change.

9. Cars

Recorded car prices in the latest entry of Friday 20 Shahrivar showed no appreciable change from the prior session. The Dena Plus Turbo Automatic optional, model 1405, stands at 3,250,000,000 tomans and the same car in model 1404 at 3,100,000,000 tomans; the distance between the two models is 150,000,000 tomans, or 4.8 percent. The Dena Plus 6 speed model 1405 is recorded at 2,470,000,000 tomans and model 1404 at 2,370,000,000 tomans, and the Dena Plus low option model 1404 at 2,270,000,000 tomans. On the Farabourse board, Gedena closed the 18 Shahrivar session at 731 tomans, 2.52 percent higher.

10. Building materials

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, type 2 cement (42.5) in bulk settled on Wednesday 18 Shahrivar at a weighted average of 26,336 rials per kilogram, or 2,634 tomans, slightly below the 2,658 toman settlement of 17 Shahrivar. Type 5 cement (42.5) in bulk settled the same day at 2,827 tomans and type 2 (32.5) in bulk at 2,509 tomans, while type 1 (42.5) in bulk last settled on 15 Shahrivar at 2,837 tomans. Type 2 cement (42.5) in 50 kilogram bags last settled on 16 Shahrivar at 3,745 tomans per kilogram; the distance between bulk and bagged by definition contains the cost of the bag, packaging and distribution, and should not be read as the gap between factory and retail.

On the bourse and Farabourse boards, the cement funds were not uniform in the 18 Shahrivar close: the Cement fund 2.23 percent higher at 1,130.2 tomans, Simana 1.36 percent higher at 4,080 tomans, Simania 0.12 percent higher at 3,989.9 tomans, and Simano 1.24 percent lower at 4,239 tomans.

11. Regional and global view

The weekend's big driver was oil. Brent stands at $104.61 today, Saturday 21 Shahrivar at 04:51, against $99.28 on the morning of Wednesday 18 Shahrivar in the same series, roughly 5.4 percent higher and above the $100 mark. The channel from that price to Tehran is open on two sides: export revenue, and the freight and insurance cost of imports. The news behind it was made by Axios and Reuters on Friday 20 Shahrivar, reporting that Washington turned down Riyadh's request to strike Ansar Allah; across those same four sessions Brent travelled $12.8 and closed just $5.4 higher, which shows the market priced that risk in both directions. Spot gold is calm at $4,350.36 in the same setting and sits 19.4 percent below its all time high of $5,400.25 set on 8 Bahman 1404 (TGJU).

In the region's currency corridors, Alanchand's reading this morning, Saturday 21 Shahrivar at 07:50 (sell rate, tomans), runs as follows: UAE dirham 64,500, Turkish lira 4,960, one hundred Iraqi dinars 15,190, Chinese yuan 35,420 and Russian rouble 2,810. The channel of each to Tehran differs, in one clause apiece: the dirham is the effective rate for a large share of Iran's imports routed through Dubai, the Iraqi dinar sets the price of cross border trade in the west of the country, the yuan is the settlement rate of Iran's principal oil buyer, the lira determines the cost of trade and travel through Turkey, and the rouble is tied to Iran and Russia's exchanges within the Eurasian Economic Union framework. In global currency markets the euro is at 1.1598 against the dollar and the dollar at 153.50 against the yen (Saturday 21 Shahrivar, 00:55).

12. Conclusion

Today's verdict is plain: the past month was the rial's month, not gold's. Spot gold fell 0.03 percent, and over the same window the Emami coin rose 27.51 percent, 18 karat gold 26.74, the free market dollar 26.18, TEDPIX 24.16 and bitcoin 21.79; when every rial denominated asset rises 22 to 28 percent over one window and the only dollar denominated asset stays where it was, what changed is the unit of measurement and not the assets. The one thing to remember is this: when the gold price rises in Tehran, look at that day's exchange rate before reaching for any other explanation, because it is by definition one of the two terms in that product. Sahmino's reading from last week also settled, and it settled half and half: it said TEDPIX would stay above 7 million points to the end of the week and its level held (the 7,122,270 point close of 18 Shahrivar), but the condition it was hung on, net retail money staying positive, broke: retail investors were net sellers of 2.5 billion shares on the Tehran exchange that same day. Sahmino's new reading: 18 karat gold stays above 23 million tomans, as long as the ounce stays above $4,300 and the free market dollar above 230,000 tomans; the level of this reading is 23,000,000 tomans, its horizon is to the end of the week, and a close of the 18 karat gram below 23 million tomans on two consecutive days invalidates it (reading dated 21 Shahrivar 1405).

13. What to watch today

• The 09:00 opening of the Tehran bourse and what becomes of the pre opening buy queues on Foolad, Vomaadan, Fameli and Shasta; and whether TEDPIX records a sixth consecutive rising session.
• The direction of net retail money in the week's first session, after Wednesday's net selling of 2.5 billion shares on the Tehran exchange.
• The first pricing of the currency and gold market after two days of closure, and how the free market dollar opens against Thursday's 235,975 toman reading; Tether this morning sits 1,686 tomans above it.
• Spot gold around the $4,350 area and whether it outruns the exchange rate in the week ahead or falls behind again.
• Brent crude above $104 and follow up on reports concerning southern Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah.
• Fresh settlements for the rebar and cement families on the Iran Mercantile Exchange, last recorded on 18 Shahrivar. The Sahmino market calendar shows upcoming events at a glance.