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FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT APRIL 2007
KAZAKHSTAN STOCK EXCHANGE
In 2007, the KASE plans to put into practice
a special trade floor of the regional
financial center of Almaty.
Azamat Joldasbekov
President
Work on further development of the
Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) was
carried out in 2006. In spite of the fact that
lot of planned tasks were put into practice,
many of them still need to be completed.
On a favorable background of general
growth in the economy in 2006 the
Kazakhstan securities market continued to
develop in the view of tendencies of the past
three years and did not change its key
features. The KASE trading volumes
increased to US$ 169.3 billion. The structure
of the KASE turnover in 2006 did not
undergo any fundamental changes. And, as
before, the main growth of the KASE turnover
comes from the repo transactions 67.3%.
Turnover in the securities market sector
reached US$ 7.0 billion, though it is only
4.2% of total KASE turnover.
In 2007, the KASE plans to put into practice
a special trading floor of the regional
financial center of Almaty, to improve
technologies and procedures while taking
into account the special needs of foreign
investors and issuers.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
The KASE (previously the Kazakhstan
Interbank Currency and Stock Exchange)
was founded on 17 November 1993 as a
closed-end joint-stock company, on the
basis of an earlier established Center of
Interbank Currency Transactions (Currency
Exchange) of the State National Bank.
The main stimulus to create the KASE was
the introduction of the national currency, the
Kazakhstan tenge, on 15 November 1993.
Starting on 1 November 1995, the KASE
began trading state t-bills. In November
1996, it received its securities trading license
from the National Securities Commission
(NSC). As a result of a proposal tendered by
the government in December 1996, the
KASE was chosen as a model exchange to
trade the securities of the largest enterprises
of Kazakhstan.
In September 1997, a closed joint-stock
company, the Almaty Financial Instruments
Exchange, separated from the KASE.
Two exchanges resulted from the adoption,
in March 1997, of the law “On Securities
Market” with the provision that a stock
exchange could only operate in securities.
However, on 1 April 1999, a merger took
place between the KASE and the Almaty
Financial Instruments Exchange (AFINEX),
thus making the KASE the only organized
market in Kazakhstan.
In 2001 the KASE became a shareholder of
the Kyrgyz Stock Exchange.
The most important event of 2003 was the
passage of two new laws that determine the
legal infrastructure of the stock market–the
law "On joint stock companies" and the law
"On securities market" that substituted the
laws of previous years. In October, 2003 the
KASE with its new subsidiary company
"eTrade.kz" LLP launched the "eTrade.kz"
project. The purpose of the project was the
organization of an internet-trading system to
carry out the operations with the financial
instrument at the KASE.
At the beginning of 2004 the KASE changed
its organization-legal structure from a
"closed joint stock company" to a "joint stock
company" as a result of the newly
implemented changes in the
aforementioned law, “On joint stock
companies”.
In 2006, creation of a regional financial
center in Almaty with the aim of the equity
market development and the integration with
the international fund market gives new
opportunities for the stock exchange and
equity market as a whole. The KASE is
legislatively determined as the special trade
floor of the regional financial center of
Almaty.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
The Program on Kazakhstan Securities
Market Development for the years
2005–2007 adopted by the Kazakhstan
government at the end of 2004 determined
the main directions of further development
and established priority tasks. Part of them
directly touch the activity of the KASE.
Creation of Regional financial center of
Almaty city with the aim of equity market
development and the integration with the
international fund market gives new
opportunities for the stock exchange and
equity market as a whole. The KASE is
legislatively determined as the special trade
floor of the regional financial center of
Almaty city.
The main targets of the KASE in 2007 are to:
• serve as the special trading floor of the
regional financial center of Almaty city;
• attract foreign issuers and investors;
• improve methods of market index
calculation; and
• increase list of traded instruments.
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