When calculating free float, the total number of shares excludes blocks that do not actively participate in trading: government stakes, controlling shareholders' shares, management holdings, and strategic investors' stakes. The remaining portion constitutes free float.
This metric is more important than full market capitalization when assessing the practical availability of a security. A large company with a small free float share may be difficult to access: trading volume is low, bid-ask spread is wide, and purchasing a significant volume moves the price.
For this reason, stock indices are often calculated using only the freely tradable portion—otherwise, the company's weight in the index would not correspond to its actual presence in trading.
A low free float share also means that prices are set by a small number of participants and are therefore less stable. For the Uzbek market, this is a significant selection factor: checking the free float share and transaction history is advisable before analyzing the issuer's financial metrics.