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Before diving into the topic, let's debunk a few myths. Shares and the stock market are not difficult. Also, securities are not just for Wall Street millionaires. They are common financial instruments that everyone can learn to use, just like bank loans or deposits, which we wrote about earlier.

The securities market is an opportunity for ordinary people to save and increase their personal savings. The Ashgabat Stock Exchange (ASE) operating in Turkmenistan is currently at the stage of active development, and this material has been prepared on the basis of interviews with exchange specialists.

How to buy shares in Turkmenistan

It is possible to purchase shares in Turkmenistan through brokers – professional securities market players acting as intermediaries between buyers and sellers of shares on the ASE. A potential investor and a broker must make an agreement, after which a special brokerage account is opened in the name of the investor for securities transactions.

An ordinary person who wants to purchase securities on the stock exchange does not need to know how, by what rules and when trades are held. Of course, if this is interesting to you personally, you can read all the details of the procedure in the official document. But in reality, it is enough for the buyer to simply leave a request to the broker to purchase a certain number of shares at a certain price – and that's it.

There are six licensed brokers operating in Turkmenistan, five of which are commercial banks and one is a private company. Phone numbers that can be used to contact brokers are listed on the ASE website in the "Securities Market participants" section.

What does the purchase of shares give

By buying shares, you become a shareholder — one of the co—owners of the joint-stock company, and you can count on dividends - a part of the profit of the JSC distributed among all shareholders. The more securities you own, the greater the share of dividends you will receive.

In addition, the shares of a particular JSC can be sold more expensive on the secondary market by setting an appropriate price for them. For example, if the market has run out of shares of the primary placement, which are put up for sale by the JSC itself, and there is demand for them, the shareholder can put his securities up for sale on the secondary market at a higher price and get a corresponding profit.

At the same time, the percentage of income from shares on dividends may be significantly higher compared to other financial instruments, for example— bank deposits. Therefore, for shareholders in Turkmenistan, the purchase of shares can become a long-term and profitable investment.

Another feature of owning shares is the ability to attend general meetings of the Joint stock Company and vote when making important management decisions. The more shares a shareholder owns, the more significant his vote is considered.

Who buys shares in Turkmenistan

As already mentioned, the purchase of shares is available to anyone. More than 57% of the shares sold through the Ashgabat Stock Exchange were purchased by individuals – that is, ordinary citizens.

If you are concerned about the question — "can I afford to buy shares for a small amount?", then we can say that some shareholders acquire shares in the course of trading for an amount that does not exceed one thousand manats. And this is completely normal. There is no minimum or maximum bar for buying shares on the stock exchange.

How to sell shares

If you want to sell your securities, they can be put up for sale on the secondary market through the Ashgabat Stock Exchange. Since the number of shares currently on free sale in Turkmenistan is quite limited, we can expect that they will be bought quickly and possibly with an acceptable profit on the secondary market.

There is an option to sell your shares through an over-the-counter transaction. To do this, it is necessary to independently find a buyer and through a broker conclude a contract with him for the purchase and sale of securities directly.

It is also possible that the joint-stock company that issued the shares will buy back its securities from you. But in this scenario, it is not necessary to count on the profit from the sale. Therefore, the best option for the sale of shares remains the secondary market, where there is a real opportunity to make money on the price difference.

Eziz OVEZOV
Photo: from the editorial archive