BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Nargiz Sadikhova - Trend:
The indicator of Kazakhstan’s stock market - KASE Index - has lost 6 percent since the beginning of the year due to the fall of shares during the period of riots across the country, Natalya Khoroshevskaya, deputy board chairperson of Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), told Trend.
Commenting on the question of how the riots in the country affected the KASE dynamics, Khoroshevskaya noted that on January 5, 2022, on the first trading day, trading on the stock exchange took place as usual.
On January 6, all trades via KASE were closed, as market regulators - the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and the National Bank of Kazakhstan - suspended the activities of all financial organizations.
"On January 10, 2022, a phased restoration of the exchange markets began. So, trading resumed on the repo transactions and the government securities (GS) markets. Trading in all stock market instruments opened on January 11," the deputy chairperson noted. "Since January 12, the foreign exchange market has become available. Trading sessions were held in a shortened mode. From January 21, the functioning of the financial market has been fully restored, operations have been carried out in a regular mode according to the approved regulations."
According to Khoroshevskaya, as of January 25, the value of the money market indicator TONIA amounted to 11.03 percent per annum, which is more than 1.5 percent per annum higher than the value at the beginning of the year.
"This was due to an increase in the base rate of the National Bank of Kazakhstan to 10.25 percent per annum, as well as a growth in the market volatility. Since January 17, the value of the Index has been mainly in a sideways trend on the multidirectional change in the prices of shares of its basket," she said.
The trading volumes on the KASE markets have remained at the level of the average daily volumes of the previous months since their reopening, added Khoroshevskaya.
Kazakhstan's government announced late Jan. 4 that it was restoring some price caps on liquefied petroleum gas after the rare protests reached Almaty following a sharp rise in the price of the fuel at the start of the year.
Many Kazakhs have converted their cars to run on LPG, which is far cheaper than gasoline as a vehicle fuel in Kazakhstan because of price caps. But the government argued that the low price was unsustainable and lifted the caps on Jan. 1.
After the price of the fuel spiked, big demonstrations erupted on Jan. 2 in certain parts of the country. Public protests are illegal in the country unless their organizers file a notice in advance.
Following the development of the situation, the government declared a state of emergency all over the country. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the government initiated anti-terrorist operations to deal with the ongoing riots.
Also, the divisions of the united peacekeeping contingent of CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) arrived in Kazakhstan to assist in restoring order and help protect strategic objects of the country.
