UAE Suspends Trade and Financial Ties With Iran; Iran Market Pulse, Midday Wednesday, 28 Mordad 1405 (Aug 19, 2026): Dollar and Coin Hold Steady as Global Gold Sets a Fresh Record

1. Lead

The United Arab Emirates formally announced early this morning, Wednesday, 28 Mordad 1405 (August 19, 2026), that it is suspending all trade activity and financial transactions with Iran until further notice. According to Khabar Online, citing ISNA, the decision came hours after the UAE Ministry of Defense claimed it had intercepted two "Iranian ballistic missiles" over Dubai's skies, a claim Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei immediately rejected and denied. The fresh tension reaches markets as Tehran's TEDPIX index gained just 0.04 percent as of 10:59 Tehran time today, the free-market dollar and the Emami gold coin were unchanged from last night, but global gold set a fresh record above $4,355 an ounce and Brent crude topped $91 a barrel, driving most of today's market action.

2. Today at a Glance

3. Today's Top Headlines

• UAE suspends trade and financial relations with Iran until further notice (Khabar Online, citing ISNA, early Wednesday, 28 Mordad)
• Global gold hits $4,355 an ounce, Brent tops $91 a barrel (tgju.org and Oilprice.com, Wednesday, 28 Mordad)
• TEDPIX gained 0.84% yesterday and trading value topped 48 trillion tomans, but retail investors pulled out roughly 1 trillion tomans (Ecoiran, Tuesday, 27 Mordad)
• Emami gold coin rose 0.79% yesterday to 192.01 million tomans, its premium stayed near zero (Ecoiran, citing the Tehran Gold and Jewelry Union, Tuesday, 27 Mordad)
• After a three-week pause, Aramco resumed tanker loadings from inside the Strait of Hormuz (Oilprice.com, citing Reuters, Kpler and Vortexa, Tuesday, 27 Mordad)

4. Currency

Tehran's free currency market has posted no fresh move as of 11:00 this morning: both the free-market dollar and the negotiated-rate (توافقی) dollar at the exchange center are holding at last night's rate (Tuesday, 27 Mordad, 19:59), the free dollar at 187,010 tomans and the negotiated dollar at 187,015 tomans. Yesterday, according to Ecoiran, the free dollar had crossed 188,000 tomans intraday before settling, per live tgju.org data, at that same 187,010 tomans (up 0.27% from the day before). The Iran Exchange Center's dollar remittance rate (sell side) stood at 156,226 tomans this morning at 8:00, putting the gap between the free rate and the official negotiated rate near 31,000 tomans. The euro is holding at 216,360 tomans in the free market.

The bigger development today, though, is the UAE's formal suspension of trade and financial ties with Iran. Sahmino's currency price page has not recorded a fresh rate yet, but the Dubai remittance corridor is the main gateway for a large share of Iran's imports and informal exchange bureaus; if the suspension continues in the coming days, it could put pressure on that remittance route. That effect has not shown up in today's midday rate yet and should be watched in this evening's and tomorrow's trading.

5. Gold and Coin

Domestic gold and coin prices are also unchanged so far today: 18-karat gold is holding at 19,304,000 tomans per gram and the Emami coin at 192,010,000 tomans, the same rate as last night (19:59). The Emami coin's premium also stayed near zero, around 185,000 tomans, which Ecoiran says shows recent gains have not yet drawn a speculative wave of buying.

Global gold, however, keeps setting records: per Sahmino's own data at 10:59 today, spot gold rose $17.90 (0.41 percent) from the prior day to $4,355.11 an ounce, a fresh record driven both by the Strait of Hormuz risk premium and expectations of a US Federal Reserve rate cut. If this global rally feeds through into the dollar-converted price of domestic gold in the coming days, the current gap between domestic and global gold could widen again, a trend worth watching in this evening's and tomorrow's trading.

6. Bourse and Farabourse

TEDPIX, after gaining 0.84 percent yesterday (Tuesday, 27 Mordad) and topping 5,898,000 points, has added just 2,603 points (0.04 percent) as of 10:59 today to stand near 5,950,000, a quiet session after two volatile days. The equal-weight index is up about 0.52 percent to 1,682,000 points. Trading value on the Tehran Stock Exchange has reached roughly 20.5 trillion tomans so far today; per Sahmino's own data, yesterday's full-day figure was about 45.2 trillion tomans, and Ecoiran reported it topping 48 trillion tomans.

Farabourse, which has its own separate index from the Tehran Stock Exchange, is up 134 points (0.28 percent) as of 10:59 today to 47,822 points, a milder gain than yesterday's 74-point rise. According to Ecoiran, retail investors were net sellers across the capital market as a whole yesterday, pulling out roughly 1 trillion tomans, while rising supply in the second half of trading signaled caution; per Sahmino's own data, that net retail selling showed up on the bourse board specifically, while on Farabourse retail investors were net buyers the same day. Today's capital-market event is the "Ako Battery" IPO, priced between 29,206 and 32,934 rials, with the offering advisor valuing the company at 37 trillion tomans.

7. Crypto

Global crypto markets are quiet and slightly negative today: bitcoin was down 0.44 percent to $64,346 as of 10:57 Tehran time, while ethereum rose 0.28 percent to $1,919. Toman-priced Tether rose 0.37 percent to 189,300 tomans, a move that largely tracks the broader parallel-market rally rather than an independent crypto move.

In sector news, Citibank unveiled its "Custody+" digital asset platform yesterday, according to Arzdigital, and said it plans to launch custody services for institutional clients by the end of 2026, initially supporting bitcoin only. Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission formally proposed a new set of rules aimed at clarifying the legal framework for digital assets, a proposal that still must go through public comment and a final commission vote.

8. Iron and Steel

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, the latest cleared price for A3 rebar (sizes 14-20) was 642,027 rials per kilogram (Sunday, 25 Mordad, the last day that line traded), while sizes 22-32 last traded Tuesday, 20 Mordad at 688,724 rials per kilogram. In the free market, Aryan Steel's factory-gate rebar-14 price is holding today at 69,550 tomans per kilogram, little changed in recent days.

Mobarakeh Steel (symbol Fooladh) reopened last Monday after a five-month trading halt and hit its daily buy-queue limit the same day, gaining 2.99 percent; the stock remains about 8.1 percent below its last price before the halt. Iran's steel exports remain under the shadow of the same Strait of Hormuz shipping constraints weighing on global energy markets today, a channel worth watching for the steel industry in the days ahead.

9. Cars

Domestic car prices show no material change today: the new Pride 151 GX (1405 model) is holding at 1.15 billion tomans. The 400-million-toman loan program for replacing worn-out cars, which was due to start last week, still has not closed the price gap to the market's cheapest new car (above 500 million tomans). Absent fresh pricing news, the car market mostly tracks the dollar rate and the factory-to-market margin rather than an independent event today; with the dollar unchanged so far, factory prices show no fresh pressure either.

10. Building Materials

On the Iran Mercantile Exchange, Type-2 (42.5) bulk cement cleared yesterday at 27,795 rials per kilogram and the bagged variety at 38,660 rials per kilogram. In Tehran's free market, a 50-kilogram bag of Type-2 cement (Tehran Cement) is holding at 291,000 tomans, a level unchanged for about a week, suggesting August's building-material price jump has stalled for now. With no fresh auction or event in this market today, that stability is expected to hold through the end of the week.

11. Regional and Global View

Brent crude was up 0.54 percent to $91.53 a barrel as of 10:59 today, and global gold, as noted, set a fresh record at $4,355. Both are drawing directly on the escalating Strait of Hormuz security crisis. According to Oilprice.com, the UK Maritime Trade Operations agency has warned that an unidentified projectile struck a tanker transiting the strait, and tanker traffic there remains erratic, even though Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings from terminals inside the strait yesterday after a three-week pause.

The biggest regional story today, though, is the UAE's decision to fully suspend trade and financial relations with Iran, a channel directly tied to the dollar remittance corridor and Iran's import market. Separately, according to Ecoiran citing IRNA and Al Araby Al Jadeed, preliminary official Saudi data shows the kingdom's economy shrank 4.8 percent year on year this spring, driven mainly by a 24.7 percent contraction in the oil sector, a sign of the heavier economic cost the closed Strait of Hormuz is imposing on Persian Gulf neighbors. The Japanese yen, per Al Jazeera, hit a 40-year low against the dollar last month, while Japan's quarterly growth also missed analysts' forecasts.

12. Bottom Line

Today was a day defined by a geopolitical headline, not a price move: the UAE suspended trade and financial ties with Iran, yet the dollar, gold and the domestic coin have shown no reaction so far. Only global gold and oil moved, on the continuing Strait of Hormuz risk premium. The point worth remembering: a quiet domestic market in the first hours of a big headline does not mean the headline is inert; the real effect of today's decision should be watched in this evening's and tomorrow's exchange bureaus and remittance market.

13. What to Watch Today

• The "Ako Battery" IPO today, Wednesday, priced between 29,206 and 32,934 rials
• Extraordinary general meetings for the symbols Neshar and Bethehran today
• How Tehran's exchange bureaus and dollar remittance market react to the UAE trade suspension, especially in this afternoon's and evening's trading
• The continuing global gold and oil trend after the UK's fresh Strait of Hormuz security warning
• Follow the Sahmino calendar for the full lineup of upcoming market events and shareholder meetings