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🇰🇿 Kazakhstan /Economy & Trade

Kazakhstan eases stock-market access, but liquidity remains the key challenge, expert says

From The Astana Times · () English

Translated from English and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Analysis Named sources New plan
  • Kazakhstan’s draft 2026-2030 capital-market program would streamline IPO and bond-issuance procedures and create a unified digital submission system.
  • Officials view capital-market expansion as a way to provide long-term financing beyond bank lending, while an analyst says insufficient investor demand and liquidity remain the main obstacles.
  • Domestic equity-market capitalization has more than doubled over the past five years, according to the article.

Kazakhstan wants to make it faster and cheaper for companies to enter the stock market, but a business analyst says the proposed reforms may not address the market’s main weakness: a lack of investor demand and liquidity.

The draft Capital Market Development Program for 2026-2030 would cut up to five months from IPO preparation and reduce the full bond-issuance cycle to as little as one or two months. It would also simplify requirements for smaller offerings. The proposals were discussed at a roundtable in Almaty on Sept. 2.

Baubek Turekhanov said the changes were logical but targeted the wrong barrier. “Reducing the IPO preparation period and simplifying requirements for smaller issues look logical, but they address the wrong barrier,” he told The Astana Times.

Reducing the IPO preparation period and simplifying requirements for smaller issues look logical, but they address the wrong barrier

· Baubek TurekhanovThe analyst said procedural reforms would not solve the liquidity problem.

The draft plan would establish a unified digital window for issuing and placing shares and bonds. Companies would submit a standardized package once through a digital account, with the system checking document completeness and format before distributing the material to the relevant institutions. The Central Securities Depository is expected to operate the platform.

Kazakhstan’s capital market has grown across its main segments. Domestic equity-market capitalization more than doubled over the past five years, with average annual growth of 11%. Financial-market regulator Chair Madina Abylkassymova said the reforms aim to create a modern stock-market structure and strengthen its role as a source of long-term financing alongside banks. The program also seeks to expand reliable long-term savings instruments and channel domestic savings into investment.

The implementation of these initiatives is aimed at creating a modern architecture of the stock market and conditions for its further development as one of the key sources of long-term financing for the economy alongside bank lending

· Madina AbylkassymovaThe financial-market regulator chair described the government’s objective.
About this summary

Originally published by The Astana Times in English. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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