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bne May 2021 Cover Story I 23
Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev recently launched a new push to develop the Uzbek capital markets with a new decree that brings in sweeping reforms. It does not represent the first attempt to get the Tashkent Stock Exchange (TSE) moving, but it is the most ambitious so far.
Since it was set up in 1994, not much has happened on the bourse. The total market capitalisation of the market stands at around $6bn or 11% of GDP, but the vast majority of listed companies are state-owned and they are only listed because they had to have shares as part of the reorganisation of the economy fol- lowing the collapse of the Soviet Union. It's not like Uzbekistan is home to a lot of equity investors or investment banks.
However, in recent years that has started to change. There is trading on the exchange and a small group of around 7,000 retail investors that have started to play the market account for something around 40% of its daily turnover of about $2mn per month.
Bekhruzbek Ochilov is one person trying to push market development. He works for Freedom Finance, the largest broker- age in the country with an approximate 75% market share of the active retail equity investors.
Indices and research
He is also the founder of EquityResearch.uz, which is the first attempt to gather research on publicly traded companies by local analysts and track performance – a basic tool for
a would-be trader.
“We have done many things to help develop the market. We have bought illiquid shares and sold them again to improve liquidity – a de facto SPO,” Ochilov told bne IntelliNews in an inter- view from Tashkent. “We have created an index of all the liquid stocks. The problem is that 90% of the main index is illiquid. We made an index of just the liq- uid stocks and update it every day on site. It's also a research platform. In the US you can find many sites like that where you can get all the information and financials. For the TSE there is none of that.”
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