The National Securities Commission (NSC) has recommended that the asset management company Zhetysu conclude a contract with the Finance Ministry to act as a primary dealer on the Kazakh securities market. The company would then become the first non-banking establishment to reach the status of primary dealer. According to the Finance Ministry, 14 primary dealers have been operating on the Kazakh market thus far, and they are all banks. (Reuters)

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On 19 October, the Finance Ministry along with the National Bank made an attempt to conduct the 28^th auction of 12-month T-bills. The announced volume was KZT 400m (some USD 4.9m). The last time a 12-month T-bills auction was held was on 10 August 1998. On 20 October, after the bids were considered, the auction was annulled. Apparently, the reason for the cancellation was the high yield bid by the participants. (AFINEX).

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The 3-month T-bills auction of 20 October witnessed a remarkable boost in demand. It was oversubscribed 3.3 times. The issuer managed to raise resources almost three times exceeding the planned volume of KZT 400m. On the one hand, this high demand might be explained by the cancellation of the 12-month T-bills auction on the previous day since part of those resources could have been channelled to the 3-month auction. On the other hand, it may be explained by the relative stability of the Tenge the National Bank of Kazakhstan has held through seven sessions now. According to expectations, the Tenge devaluation may be around 15% per annum over the next three months. This made the average yield of 20.4% on the latest 3-month T-bills auction quite acceptable. (AFINEX)