/KASE, March 31, 08/ - Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) has determined the leading operators of stock exchange's currency market in February 2008, using the new ranking methodology.

Totally 25 second tier banks participated in deals' making on KASE in February. Below is the list of ten most active KASE members of "B" category (all headquarters are in Almaty).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Position                                                                
      in:                                   The indicator Ka calculation
---------                                              of         basis:
Feb. Jan. Brief name of the company              activity ---- ---- ----
2008 2008                                            (Ka)    V    N    D
---- ---- --------------------------------- ------------- ---- ---- ----
   1    3 Kazkommertsbank JSC                        2.44 0.74 0.90 0.80
   2    2 Nurbank JSC                                2.43 1.00 0.63 0.80
   3    1 DJSB ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan JSC          2.05 0.38 0.87 0.80
   4    6 Alliance Bank JSC                          2.00 0.50 0.70 0.80
   5    7 BTA Bank JSC*                              1.67 0.41 0.47 0.80
   6    5 DB HSBC Bank Kazakhstan JSC                1.66 0.43 0.44 0.80
   7    4 BANK CASPIAN JSC                           1.43 0.42 0.21 0.80
   8    9 Citibank Kazakhstan JSC                    1.37 0.19 0.38 0.80
   9   10 Kazinvestbank JSC                          1.22 0.12 0.30 0.80
  10   12 ATFBank JSC                                1.14 0.09 0.32 0.72
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newcomers of the "active ten" relative to January 2008 became ATFBank JSC, having replaced Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan JSC (eighth position in January) in top-10.

Below is given the corresponding table of the most active members of KASE of "B" category in the sector for the first 2 months of year 2008. 25 second tier banks participated in the deals' making during the period.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              The indicator Ka calculation
                                                         of         basis:
                                                   activity --------------
Position Brief name of the company                     (Ka)    V    N    D
-------- ------------------------------------ ------------- ---- ---- ----
       1 Kazkomemrtsbank JSC                           2.34 0.70 0.84 0.80
       2 Nurbank JSC                                   2.33 1.00 0.53 0.80
       3 DJSB ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan JSC             2.23 0.55 0.88 0.80
       4 Alliance Bank JSC                             1.84 0.44 0.62 0.78
       5 DB HSBC Bank Kazakhstan JSC                   1.70 0.47 0.43 0.80
       6 BTA Bank JSC*                                 1.62 0.41 0.44 0.78
       7 BANK CASPIAN JSC                              1.55 0.53 0.26 0.76
       8 Citibank Kazakhstan JSC                       1.41 0.19 0.41 0.80
       9 Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan JSC          1.25 0.30 0.22 0.72
      10 Kazinvestbank JSC                             1.18 0.12 0.26 0.80
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

KASE stresses, that the ranking of activity of exchange currency market operators, given in the tables, is compiled according to the new methodology. The text of this methodology will be published on the site of exchange in the nearest time.

The core of the methodology is the following. The place of the bank in the ranking is determined by the value of so-called activity indicator (Ka), which is calculated for each member of the exchange. The first position in the rating corresponds to the highest value of Ka.

The given indicator for corporate bonds market operators is calculated by the formula: Ka = V + 0,9*N + 0,8*D, where:

V - the indicator of volume of the deals, enclosed by the rating member of the exchange with corporate bonds for the analyzed period on the KASE currency market; V = Vi / Vmax, where Vi - is the volume of deals, enclosed by the rating bank for the period, Vmax - the highest volume of deals, enclosed by any member of KASE of "B" category for the same period (without consideration of the National Bank);

N - the indicator of the number of deals, enclosed by the rating member of the exchange with currency for the analyzed period on KASE currency market; N = Ni / Nmax, where Ni - is the number of deals, enclosed by rating bank for the period, Nmax - the highest amount of deals, enclosed by any member of KASE of "B" category for the same period (without consideration of the National Bank);

D - the indicator of the amount of resulting days of rating member of the exchange in the analyzed period (the resulting is the day, during which the rating member of the exchange had enclosed at least one deal with corporate bonds by open trades method on KASE secondary market);
D = Di / Dmax, where Di - is amount of resulting days of rating member of the exchange, D(max) - the highest amount of resulting days, fixed for the analyzed period for any KASE member of "B" category;

The Vi, Ni, Di, Vmax, Nmax, Dmax indicators are the specific indicators, that is are calculated as the ration of volume of deals (amount of deals, amount of resulting days) to number of days in the analyzed period, during which this participant of traded was the member of exchange of the given category. Thus, is grading the dependence of values of the indicators from the duration of KASE member work on the exchange.

At the same time, into the ranking not all members of KASE of "A" category are included to the rating. For inclusion into the ranking the bank has to be the KASE member of the specified category not less than 70% (according to number of calendar days) of analyzed period, if is considered the period up to one month, and not less than 50% if the longer analyzed period is used.

[2008-03-31]