Iran bourse breaks record with billion dollar trade

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

TEHRAN (AFP) — The Tehran stock exchange has broken its record for the highest ever transaction on the nascent bourse with the sale of shares worth over one billion dollars in a state copper company, media reported on Thursday.

Twenty percent of shares in National Iranian Copper Industries were sold in less than seven minutes on Wednesday for 10 trillion rials (1.1 billion dollars).

The purchaser was a consortium made up mainly of state companies, including the pension funds of the steel industry and state broadcasting, the reports said.

While the shares have been sold as part of the government's ongoing privatisation programme, the fact the purchasers are themselves state entities casts doubt on whether this can be termed a real privatisation.

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