TEHRAN, 25 July 2005 — Iranian authorities are trying to halt the downward plunge of Tehran’s stock exchange, which has lost nearly six percent of its value since the June 24 victory of President Mahmood Ahmadinejad. “The stock exchange has dipped 5.9 percent since the presidential election, which has raised many concerns, but this dip is not surprising,” bourse chief Hossein Abdo Tabrizi was quoted as saying Wednesday in the Iranian press. Since Ahmadinejad’s shock election win, the Tehran Stock Exchange has steadily dropped, marking gains on only two days since June 24. The trend began some months before the presidential election but gained momentum with the election of Ahmadinejad, whose promise to distribute wealth more evenly among the population frightened investors.