Astana, 10 November. The Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market (ARDFM) and the National Bank have approved the Capital Market Development Programme for 2026–2030.
By 2030 stock market capitalisation is to rise from 26% to 30–35% of GDP, and share turnover, the ratio of annual trading volume to capitalisation, from 1.4% to 5–10%, ARDFM said.
The programme was approved by joint resolution No. 143 of the ARDFM board of 30 October 2026 and No. 125 of the National Bank board of 29 October 2026. It was drawn up to carry out the President’s instruction given at an expanded Government meeting on 10 February 2026. The agency gives these starting figures: over five years the capitalisation of Kazakhstan’s stock market more than doubled, from 19.1 to 41.8 trillion tenge, at an average annual rate of 22%, and the debt securities market almost doubled, from 32 to 58 trillion tenge. The main task, the release says, is to make the capital market more accessible to business and investors and turn it into a source of long-term money for the economy alongside bank lending.
A capital market is the exchange and over-the-counter trade in shares and bonds through which the savings of the public and organisations reach companies. The word “capital” comes from the Latin “capitalis” (“chief”, from “caput”, “head”); it has long meant money put into circulation to earn income. The programme divides the work into seven directions and 35 initiatives. The target indicators (against 2025, as stated in the document) are: debt securities outstanding to GDP from 36% to 45–50%, debt market turnover from 9% to 20–25%, and the share of pension assets under private management from zero to 20–30%. The authors call the figures benchmarks.
What lies behind them. To bring more companies to the market, a single window for preparing IPO documents is proposed (an IPO is the first public sale of shares on an exchange), along with a programme to prepare large private companies and an institution of listing sponsors who help smaller companies get to the exchange. Tax incentives for first offerings will also be considered: the document notes that existing breaks apply mostly to investors’ income, while for the company itself going public requires significant one-off costs. To make shares change hands more often, a centralised securities-lending mechanism for covered short sales is planned, and market making, a professional participant’s constant quoting of buy and sell prices, is to be improved.
For investors the programme proposes widening the range of funds, including ETFs (funds whose units trade on an exchange like shares), and creating a legal basis for hedge funds. Such funds, the document says, will be able to use derivatives, short sales, securities lending and borrowed funds, but only qualified investors will have access; tax neutrality of the structure is named as a separate condition. The programme brings digital financial assets into the general infrastructure. By its data, uniform rules for their circulation have applied since May 2026, the KASE exchange has become the first operator of a digital financial asset platform, and 34 projects are running in the National Bank’s regulatory sandbox. Real issues and a stable settlement model are named as the next stage. This ties to the President’s decree of 7 July 2026 on developing the digital asset industry, which provides, among other things, for pilot issues of government and corporate bonds in digital form. The National Bank’s placement of tokenized notes on KASE, whose results were announced on the evening of 10 November, is a step in the same direction, though the programme does not mention it. The programme also provides a legal framework for ESG finance and the Islamic segment of the capital market.
What neither the release nor the document gives as a single figure: the programme’s total cost and the source of funds. Deadlines are set by the action plan for the measures, many of which fall in 2027.
What it means: The state is betting that part of savings and bank credit will flow into shares and bonds, and for this it opens the door at once to companies, investors and pension money. The indicators remain benchmarks, not a guaranteed result.
Who benefits: Companies that need long-term capital not through a bank: going public is made easier and tax incentives for first offerings are being considered. Private managers and professional investors: hedge funds, ETFs and access to pension assets widen. The KASE exchange: its load and role grow, including in digital assets.
Background: Free float is the share of stock in free circulation; the higher it is, the easier it is to buy and sell a security. A short sale is the sale of borrowed securities in the hope of buying them back cheaper. A qualified investor is one with higher knowledge and capital who is allowed riskier products.
