STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Monday, 15 December 2014

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17. Iran’s 300% Stock Rally Fades as Nuclear Deal Eludes Rouhani

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-14/iran-s-300-stocks-rally-fizzles-as-nuclear-deal-eludes-rouhani.html

The five-year rally in Iranian stocks is coming to an end as optimism fades that President Hassan Rouhani can resolve an international standoff over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

The Tehran Stock Exchange Index has lost 20 percent in 2014, set for the first yearly decline since 2008, as petrochemical companies and lenders plunged, bourse data show. Over the previous five years, shares soared 910 percent, or about 300 percent in dollar terms after factoring in the rial’s declines.

Progress on talks with world powers stalled last month, undermining confidence that Rouhani’s election in June 2013 would spur a detente with the U.S. The two sides announced Nov. 24 they’d need another seven months to try to end a decade of international sanctions that are throttling the economy. The six-month plunge in oil, Iran’s biggest income source, deepened the selloff.

“After the spike on the back of the potential for rapprochement, continued negotiation extensions have weighed on” stocks, Emad Mostaque, a London-based strategist at Ecstrat Ltd., said by e-mail Dec. 12. “The market retains significant upside potential in the medium and long term, but low oil prices and continued economic adjustment are likely to weigh in the short term.”