Tehran stock market plunges as Iran’s economy dives into chaos 

The stock exchange in Tehran plunged dramatically yesterday (Sunday) following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, head of the political bureau of Hamas, in Tehran.

As markets opened, the main index fell sharply, wiping out more than 1.1 trillion tomans (Iranian gold currency) for shareholders, according to Arab media reports. The Iranian regime is trying to stabilize the market which is in crisis and the Iranian economy which is under collapse. Mohammad-Reza Aref, the new vice president, ordered a massive infusion of funds from the National Development Fund, starting last Wednesday.

However, these efforts proved futile, with 100 billion tomans transferred on Wednesday and another 500 billion tomans on Saturday, which also failed to stem the index's slide.

Government-controlled media in the country reported that many traders at the Tehran Stock Exchange turned off their systems yesterday in protest of the difficult market conditions and its mismanagement. Senior traders in the stock room also decided to abandon their positions in the middle of the trading day as a sign of protest.