In the first quarter of 2026, retail bond market turnover on RFB 'Toshkent' reached a record 1.8 trillion soums, while stock turnover on the Main Board was 65.91 billion soums. Trading in both segments is highly concentrated: the top ten most liquid stocks accounted for nearly 92% of section turnover, top-10 bonds — 99.6%.
Stocks: leaders and concentration
Over three months, 169,261 stock transactions were concluded. According to Freedom Broker analyst Muhammadkamron Murodov, the volume is almost 3.5 times higher than a year earlier. The top-10 stocks by turnover accounted for 60.55 billion soums.
About 70% of cash turnover was generated by UzRTSB (URTS), Uzbektelekom (UZTL), and Uzpromstroibank (SQBN). Including UZINP, four securities from UzNIF's portfolio account for 71% of quarterly volume. The analyst links demand to expectations for new instruments, including IPOs of state companies by 2030 and UzNIF placements.
- commodity and raw materials exchange stocks rose 22.8% to 7,675 soums;
- UZTL gained 23.59% to 7,200 soums; the company's net profit for last year increased roughly 14-fold;
- SQBN gained 195.62% to 32.43 soums;
- Hamkorbank (HMKB) rose 30.70% to 56.2 soums;
- Uzmetkombinat increased 105.86% to 6,175.88 soums.
According to Avesta Investment Group calculations, P/E for SQBN, UZTL, URTS, and HMKB over the last 12 months ranges from 4.1x to 8.5x.
Bonds: primary market and secondary trading
The volume of bonds in circulation reached approximately 5.7 trillion soums. The number of transactions in the first quarter — 5,922; a year ago, transaction volume was approaching 13 billion soums with fewer than 1,000 transactions. Six issues totaling 1.66 trillion soums with coupons of 16.5–27% per annum were placed via public subscription; the primary market accounted for approximately 93% of transaction volume.
Four largest issues — Asaka Bank (ASAK4B5, 1 trillion soums), Uzum (UZUMN2B3 — 385.5 billion and UZUMN2B2 — 35.75 billion soums), and KRIU (IQMK5B8, 300 billion soums) — generated 95.67% of section turnover. They were placed primarily among institutional investors and are difficult for retail investors to access due to high face value.
The secondary market totaled approximately 130 billion soums and belongs to retail investors trading MFO bonds. The top-10 retail issues accounted for 97.23% of transactions (5,758). Leader — Agat Credit: including a new issue of 40 billion soums at 26%, the company accounted for 3,843 transactions, or 64.9%. Biznes Finans' turnover across all securities was 12.76 billion soums. Average transaction size for ACMT1B — 2.3 million soums.
Yields and risks
The weighted average yield of corporate bonds (AWACRI) at quarter-end — approximately 20.2% per annum, with some issues offering coupons of 24–28%. Shodlik Nazarov from Avesta Investment Group notes that risks for high-yield corporate bonds are typically higher than bank deposits, and recommends assessing issuer sustainability and reporting transparency.