Emad Shaker Abdul Al-Jabar, 41, had a good day Sunday after the cop-cum-broker made three time's his monthly salary by selling off shares bought just one week ago on the revamped Iraq Stock Exchange.
"Its simply fantastic. I sold shares worth five million dinars and made a profit of more than two million dinars in just one session. What a great day," exclaimed Abdul Al-Jabar.
The bourse, which opened on June 24, enjoyed record trading volumes on its sixth session to-date, with more than two billion stocks swapping hands.
"The volumes seen Sunday are simply historic," Taha Ahmed Abdulsalam, chief executive of the exchange, told AFP.
"This is despite the primitive system we have. Imagine what it would be once the electronic trading terminals come," he said referring to a plan to shift from the old-fashioned paper system for a fully automated trading floor.
Iraq's stock exchange is a product of more than a year's work by 12 brokerage firms and banks that jointly own it. It has 27 listed companies, with about 100 more due to go public in the next six weeks.
Only open on Sundays and Wednesdays for two-hours at a time, the scope for growth is huge and the demand is clearly visible on the small trading floor where around 50 brokers push and shove to execute orders from clients.
One of the most active was 33-year-old Lubna Alatar, running from one side to the other to issue orders for her customers, who are not allowed to come themselves to the exchange for security reasons amid a raging insurgency which claims lives every day.
"Its a great job. Not routine at all and I enjoy it," she said while writing her order on a white board hanging on the wall of the hall, tucked behind a hotel in central Baghdad.
"The opening of the exchange is the best thing that has happened to the Iraqi economy. Just wait for one year and see how the market moves. People are going to make millions."
Alatar hopes the government will open Iraq's equity market to foreigners. "We want those big investors who invest in other markets," she said.
The 300,000 or so investors who used to speculate on the former Baghdad stock exchange, which shut on the day of the US-led invasion, are eligible to speculate on the new bourse, which is also open to new Iraqi money.
And people appear keen to invest in the hope the economy will boom in the coming years and as foreigners are allowed access.
"Foreign investors and strong security are the two best things that can happen to our market. I am sure it will happen soon and our exchange will be the best in the region," said Ali Hassan Ali, broker and vice president of the Iraqi Association of Securities Dealers.
Officials of the Iraq Stock Exchange said the market closed Sunday higher than the previous session. The final closing prices would be ready only Monday.
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