ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 16. Shares of Kazatomprom, the world’s largest uranium producer, showed a decline in the first quarter amid external political pressure, said Deputy Chairperson of the Board of the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) Dana Amanzholova at the press conference devoted to the results of the exchange market activity, Trend reports.
At a press conference dedicated to the stock market results for the first quarter of 2025, Dana Amanzholova stated that since the beginning of the year, the market capitalization of shares decreased by 3.4 percent, or 1.1 trillion tenge ($2.1 billion), to 31.8 trillion tenge ($63.1 billion) due to falling share prices listed on KASE.
“The KASE Index closed the quarter with a positive trend: growth was 1.4 percent compared to the start of the year. The main drivers of growth were shares in the banking sector, in particular, BCC and the People's Bank. The greatest decline was recorded in the shares of Kazatomprom, Kaspi, and Air Astana,” she noted.
Later, Natalia Khoroshevskaya, Chairperson of the Clearing Center of KASE, commented on the situation regarding the drop in uranium prices. According to her, the price decline affected not only Kazakhstan’s uranium but also several other raw materials, which are connected to overall volatility in global markets.
"Right now, we see that the economic policy of one of the largest players — the US — is completely unpredictable, so prices are quite volatile. But this is not the first time we’ve seen high volatility in the history of financial and commodity markets. It’s cyclical," she said.
She also emphasized that companies operating solely in the domestic market and not represented on international exchanges are more resilient in the face of external economic shocks. At the same time, companies whose activities are closely tied to exports and international operations inevitably face the impact of global risks.
"Kazatomprom is one of the flagship companies in Kazakhstan’s industry, and it is highly globalized. The company sells uranium on foreign markets, its shares are traded on foreign exchanges, it has undergone an IPO, and it has many investors. Of course, such companies take the brunt of the impact in these situations. There can be no question about the company’s resilience or its evaluation by domestic investors. The global market is volatile right now — it will sharply decline and, I hope, sharply rise. Accordingly, such companies will be caught in these storms," she added.
According to the consolidated report for the past year, Kazatomprom’s revenue grew by 26 percent to 1.8 trillion tenge ($3.4 billion). Meanwhile, the company’s net profit increased by 95 percent, reaching 1.3 trillion tenge ($2.5 billion). The stable financial position of the national uranium producer was also confirmed by the international rating agency Fitch, which maintained the company’s credit rating at BBB with a stable outlook.
Meanwhile, it was also reported recently that the national atomic company Kazatomprom and the Czech company ČEZ a.s. signed a contract for the supply of Kazakh natural uranium concentrate to the nuclear power plants of the Czech Republic.
