Stock exchange A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks,

bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and dividends. Securities traded on a stock exchange include shares issued by companies, unit trusts, derivatives, pooled investment products and bonds. To be able to trade a security on a certain stock exchange, it must be listed there. Usually, there is a central location at least for record keeping, but trade is increasingly less linked to such a physical place, as modern markets are electronic networks, which gives them advantages of increased speed and reduced cost of transactions. Trade on an exchange is by members only. The initial offering of stocks and bonds to investors is by definition done in the primary market and subsequent trading is done in the secondary market. A stock exchange is often the most important component of a stock market. Supply and demand in stock markets is driven by various factors that, as in all free markets, affect the price of stocks (see stock valuation). There is usually no compulsion to issue stock via the stock exchange itself, nor must stock be subsequently traded on the exchange. Such trading is said to be off exchange or over-the-counter. This is the usual way that derivatives and bonds are traded. Increasingly, stock exchanges are part of a global market for securities.

The role of stock exchanges Stock exchanges have multiple roles in the economy. This may include the following: Raising capital for businesses The Stock Exchange provide companies with the facility to raise capital for expansion through selling shares to the investing public.[4] Mobilizing savings for investment When people draw their savings and invest in shares (through a IPO or the issuance of new company shares of an already listed company), it usually leads to rational allocation of resources because funds, which could have been consumed, or kept in idle deposits with banks, are mobilized and redirected to help companies' management boards finance their organizations. This may promote business activity with benefits for several economic sectors such as agriculture, commerce and industry, resulting in stronger economic growth and higher productivity levels of firms. Sometimes it is very difficult for the stock investor to determine whether or not the allocation of those funds is in good faith and will be able to generate long-term company growth, without examination of a company's internal auditing. Facilitating company growth Companies view acquisitions as an opportunity to expand product lines, increase distribution channels, hedge against volatility, increase its market share, or acquire other necessary business assets. A takeover bid or a merger agreement through the stock market is one of the simplest and most common ways for a company to grow by acquisition or fusion. Profit sharing Both casual and professional stock investors, as large as institutional investors or as small as an ordinary middle class family, through dividends and stock price increases that may result in capital gains, share in the wealth of profitable
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businesses. Unprofitable and troubled businesses may result in capital losses for shareholders. Corporate governance By having a wide and varied scope of owners, companies generally tend to improve management standards and efficiency to satisfy the demands of these shareholders, and the more stringent rules for public corporations imposed by public stock exchanges and the government. Consequently, it is alleged that public companies (companies that are owned by shareholders who are members of the general public and trade shares on public exchanges) tend to have better management records than privately held companies (those companies where shares are not publicly traded, often owned by the company founders and/or their families and heirs, or otherwise by a small group of investors). Creating investment opportunities for small investors As opposed to other businesses that require huge capital outlay, investing in shares is open to both the large and small stock investors because a person buys the number of shares they can afford. Therefore the Stock Exchange provides the opportunity for small investors to own shares of the same companies as large investors. Government capital-raising for development projects Governments at various levels may decide to borrow money to finance infrastructure projects such as sewage and water treatment works or housing estates by selling another category of securities known as bonds. These bonds can be raised through the Stock Exchange whereby members of the public buy them, thus loaning money to the government. The issuance of such bonds can obviate the need, in the short term, to directly tax citizens to finance developmentthough by securing such bonds with the full faith and credit of the government instead of with collateral, the government must eventually tax citizens or otherwise raise
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additional funds to make any regular coupon payments and refund the principal when the bonds mature. Barometer of the economy At the stock exchange, share prices rise and fall depending, largely, on market forces. Share prices tend to rise or remain stable when companies and the economy in general show signs of stability and growth. An economic recession, depression, or financial crisis could eventually lead to a stock market crash. Therefore the movement of share prices and in general of the stock indexes can be an indicator of the general trend in the economy.

The main stock exchanges:

American Stock Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Athens Stock Exchange Belgrade Stock Exchange Berliner Brse Bermuda Stock Exchange Bolsa Mexicana de Valores Bolsa de Valores de Colombia Bolsa de Valores de Lima Bombay Stock Exchange Bucharest Stock Exchange Budapest Stock Exchange Bulgarian Stock Exchange - Sofia Canadian National Stock Exchange - CNSX Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange Casablanca Stock Exchange
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Channel Islands Stock Exchange Chicago Stock Exchange Euronext Amsterdam Euronext Brussels Euronext Lisbon Euronext Paris Frankfurt Stock Exchange Ghana Stock Exchange Helsinki Stock Exchange Hong Kong Stock Exchange Indonesia Stock Exchange Irish Stock Exchange Istanbul Stock Exchange Karachi Stock Exchange Korea Stock Exchange Kuwait Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange Luxembourg Stock Exchange Madrid Stock Exchange Malaysia Stock Exchange Milan Stock Exchange Montreal Stock Exchange Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange Nagoya Stock Exchange National Stock Exchange of India New York Stock Exchange New Zealand Exchange
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Nigerian Stock Exchange Osaka Securities Exchange Philippine Stock Exchange Prague Stock Exchange Russian Trading System Santiago Stock Exchange So Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA) Shanghai Stock Exchange Shenzhen Stock Exchange Singapore Exchange Stockholm Stock Exchange Stock Exchange of Thailand Taiwan Stock Exchange Tehran Stock Exchange Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Tokyo Stock Exchange Toronto Stock Exchange Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange Warsaw Stock Exchange Zurich Stock Exchange

Listing requirements Listing requirements are the set of conditions imposed by a given stock exchange upon companies that want to be listed on that exchange. Such conditions sometimes include minimum number of shares outstanding, minimum market capitalization, and minimum annual income.

Requirements by stock exchange Companies must meet an exchange's requirements to have their stocks and shares listed and traded there, but requirements vary by stock exchange:

Bombay Stock Exchange: Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has

requirements for a minimum market capitalization of 25 crore and minimum public float equivalent to 10 crore.

London Stock Exchange: The main market of the London Stock Exchange

has requirements for a minimum market capitalization (700,000), three years of audited financial statements, minimum public float (25 per cent) and sufficient working capital for at least 12 months from the date of listing.

NASDAQ Stock Exchange: To be listed on the NASDAQ a company must

have issued at least 1.25 million shares of stock worth at least $70 million and must have earned more than $11 million over the last three years.

New York Stock Exchange: To be listed on the New York Stock Exchange

(NYSE) a company must have issued at least a million shares of stock worth $100 million and must have earned more than $10 million over the last three years

Bombay Stock Exchange

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) (Marathi: Bombay hare Bzar)

Type Location

Stock Exchange Mumbai, India 185547N

Coordinates

725001E18.929681N 72.833589E

Founded (formerly, The Stock Exchange, Bombay) is a stock exchange located on Dalal Street, Mumbai and is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. The equity market capitalization of the companies listed on the BSE was US$1.63 trillion as of December 2010, making it the 4th largest stock exchange in Asia and the 8th largest in the world. The BSE has the largest number of listed companies in the world.
[2] [1]

1875 Bombay Stock Exchange Limited Madhu Kannan (CEO & MD) Indian rupee ( )

Owner Key people Currency

No. of listings 5,085 MarketCap Volume US$1.8 trillion (Dec 2010)[1] US$231 billion (Nov 2010) BSE SENSEX Indexes BSE Small Cap BSE Mid-Cap BSE 500 Website www.bseindia.com

As of June 2011, there are over 5,085 listed Indian companies and over 8,196 scrips on the stock exchange,[3] the Bombay Stock Exchange has a significant trading volume. The BSE SENSEX, also called "BSE 30", is a widely used market index in India and Asia. Though many other exchanges exist, BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India account for the majority of the equity trading
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in India. While both have similar total market capitalization (about USD 1.6 trillion), share volume in NSE is typically two times that of BSE. History The Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers house the Bombay Stock Exchange since 1980. The Bombay Stock Exchange is the oldest exchange in Asia. It traces its history to the 1850s, when four Gujarati and one Parsi stockbroker would gather under banyan trees in front of Mumbai's Town Hall. The location of these meetings changed many times, as the number of brokers constantly increased. The group eventually moved to Dalal Street in 1874 and in 1875 became an official organization known as 'The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association'. In 1956, the BSE became the first stock exchange to be recognized by the Indian Government under the Securities Contracts Regulation Act. The Bombay Stock Exchange developed the BSE SENSEX in 1986, giving the BSE a means to measure overall performance of the exchange. In 2000 the BSE used this index to open its derivatives market, trading SENSEX futures contracts. The development of SENSEX options along with equity derivatives followed in 2001 and 2002, expanding the BSE's trading platform. Historically an open outcry floor trading exchange, the Bombay Stock Exchange switched to an electronic trading system in 1995. It took the exchange only fifty days to make this transition. This automated, screen-based trading platform called BSE On-line trading (BOLT) currently has a capacity of 8 million orders per day. The BSE has also introduced the world's first centralized exchange-based internet trading system, BSEWEBx.co.in to enable investors anywhere in the world to trade on the BSE platform.[5] The BSE is currently housed in Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers at Dalal Street, Fort area.

Hours of operation The hours of operation for the BSE quoted above are stated in terms the local time (i.e. GMT +5:30) in Mumbai , India. BSE's normal trading sessions are on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance. Position Transfer Session Closing Session Option Exercise Session Margin Session Query Session End of Day Session Awards

Session

Timing

Beginning of the Day Session 8:00 - 9:00 pre-open trading session Trading Session 9:00 - 9:15 9:15 - 15:30 15:30 - 15:50 15:50 - 16:05 16:05 - 16:35 16:35 - 16:50 16:50 - 17:35 17:30

The World Council of Corporate Governance has awarded the Golden

Peacock Global CSR Award for BSE's initiatives in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

The Annual Reports and Accounts of BSE for the year ended March 31,

2006 and March 31, 2007 have been awarded the ICAI awards for excellence in financial reporting.

The Human Resource Management at BSE has won the Asia - Pacific HRM

awards for its efforts in employer branding through talent management at work, health management at work and excellence in HR through technology

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National Stock Exchange of India

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) (Hindi: Rashtriya hare Bzar) is a stock exchange located at Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is the 9th largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization and largest in India by daily turnover and number of trades, for both equities and derivative trading.[2] NSE has a market capitalization of around US$1.59 trillion and over 1,552 listings as of December 2010.[3] Though a number of other

Type Location

Stock Exchange Mumbai, India 19337N

Coordinates

725135E19.06028N 72.85972E

Founded Owner Key people Currency

1992 National Stock Exchange of India Limited Ravi Narain (MD) Indian rupee ( )

No. of listings 1,552 MarketCap US$1.59 trillion (Dec 2010)[1] S&P CNX Nifty Indexes CNX Nifty Junior S&P CNX 500 Website www.nse-india.com

exchanges exist, NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange are the two most significant stock exchanges in India, and between them are responsible for the vast majority of share transactions. The NSE's key index is the S&P CNX Nifty, known as the NSE NIFTY (National Stock Exchange Fifty), an index of fifty major stocks weighted by market capitalisation.

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NSE is mutually-owned by a set of leading financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries in India but its ownership and management operate as separate entities.[4] There are at least 2 foreign investors NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs who have taken a stake in the NSE.[5] As of 2006, the NSE VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India.[6] NSE is the third largest Stock Exchange in the world in terms of the number of trades in equities.[7] It is the second fastest growing stock exchange in the world with a recorded growth of 16.6%.[8]

Origins The National Stock Exchange of India was promoted by leading Financial institutions at the behest of the Government of India, and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company. In April 1993, it was recognized as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital market (Equities) segment of the NSE commenced operations in November 1994, while operations in the Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000.

Markets Currently, NSE has the following major segments of the capital market:

Equity Futures and Options Retail Debt Market Wholesale Debt Market Currency futures Mutual Fund
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Stocks lending and borrowing

August 2008 Currency derivatives were introduced in India with the launch of Currency Futures in USD INR by NSE. Currently it has also launched currency futures in EURO, POUND & YEN. Interest Rate Futures was introduced for the first time in India by NSE on 31 August 2009, exactly after one year of the launch of Currency Futures. NSE became the first stock exchange to get approval for Interest rate futures as recommended by SEBI-RBI committee, on 31 August 2009, a futures contract based on 7% 10 Year GOI bond (NOTIONAL) was launched with quarterly maturities. [10]

Hours NSE's normal trading sessions are conducted from 9:15 am India Time to 3:30 pm India Time on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and Official Holidays declared by the Exchange (or by the Government of India) in advance.[11] The exchange, in association with BSE (Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd.), is thinking of revising its timings from 9.00 am India Time to 5.00 pm India Time. There were System Testing going on and opinions, suggestions or feedback on the New Proposed Timings are being invited from the brokers across India. And finally on 18 November 2009 regulator decided to drop their ambitious goal of longest Asia Trading Hours due to strong opposition from its members. On 16 December 2009, NSE announced that it would advance the market opening to 9:00 am from 18 December 2009. So NSE trading hours will be from 9.00 am till 3:30 pm India Time. However, on 17 December 2009, after strong protests from brokers, the Exchange decided to postpone the change in trading hours till 4 Jan 2010. NSE new market timing from 4 Jan 2010 is 9:00 am till 3:30 pm India Time.
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Certifications NSE also conducts online examination and awards certification, under its programmes of NSE's Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM)[1]. Currently, certifications are available in 19 modules, covering different sectors of financial and capital markets. Branches of the NSE are located throughout India. NSE, in collaboration with reputed colleges and institutes in India, has been offering a short-term course called NSE Certified Capital Market Professional (NCCMP) since August 2009, in the campuses of the respective colleges/ institutes.

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OTC Exchange of India

Type Location Founded Owner Key people Currency Website

Stock Exchange Mumbai, India 1990 OTC Exchange of India Mr Praveen Mohnot, MD[1][2] Indian rupee ( ) Official Website

History OTC Exchange Of India was founded in 1990 under the Companies Act 1956 and got recognized by the Securities Contracts Regulation Act, 1956 as a stock exchange

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