ITS trading volume hits record $1.3 bln in March

Trading volume on the international trading platform ITS reached a new record of $1.31 billion in March 2025 – a 63% increase from $806 million in February.

This surge was primarily driven by a significant rise in the number of active investors. Since the beginning of the year, the number of investors trading on ITS under the jurisdiction of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) has grown by 27,000.

"Achieving a record trading volume that surpassed the psychological benchmark of $1 billion in March is a direct result of ITS's strategy to strengthen Kazakhstan's financial market on the global stage and expand access to international financial instruments for investors from Central Asia and the Caucasus," said Chingiz Kanapyanov, CEO of ITS.

"We see ITS becoming a crucial element within the AIFC ecosystem, driving cross-border business development and enhancing liquidity in the national financial market. Our efforts are focused on making investment accessible to everyone by offering a wide range of instruments – from shares of leading global companies to innovative ETFs."

The increased trading volume on ITS was also driven by growing demand for new instruments such as ETFs, particularly those linked to ITS’s own indexes.

As of the end of March, investors on ITS had access to more than 3,000 shares, depositary receipts and ETFs from the U.S., Europe and Asia, with primary listings on the NYSE, NASDAQ and AIX.

 

About ITS

ITS is an international liquidity hub. Central to ITS's business model are the principles of best execution and smart order routing technology. These principles enable investors to execute securities transactions at the best prices available on the global financial market, regardless of the transaction volume. This technology ensures that the liquidity for foreign securities on ITS matches that of leading international platforms where these securities are traded.

ITS Central Securities Depository Limited, the central depository for ITS, offers depository services for the storage and settlement of securities. The depository has received Qualified Intermediary with primary withholding responsibility (WQI) status from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Operating a clearing house that acts as a Central Counterparty, ITS assumes the counterparty role for all obligations of clearing participants and manages the clearing process for transactions on the ITS trading platform.

ITS also calculates its own indexes: the ITS World index (ITSW) and the ITS Shariah index (ITSS).

Trading of the first ETF in Central Asia and Caucasus, pegged to the performance of ITS’s own index – ITS World (ticker: ITSW), began on ITS in November 2024, providing a wide range of investors with a convenient and balanced instrument for investing and trading with a low entry threshold. In January 2025, the ETF lineup expanded with the introduction of a fund based on the ITS Shariah Index (ticker: ITSS).

ITS's direct clients include professional securities market participants from Kazakhstan and other countries, such as financial intermediaries who are accredited and directly registered at the AIFC. Investors, both private individuals and legal entities, access trading through these financial intermediaries, such as brokers and banks.

 

ITS Press Service
pr@itsx.kz