Bombay Stock Exchange Must Know
BSE
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is based in Mumbai, India. Now one of the top twenty largest stock exchange in the world, and India’s second oldest Stock Exchange, it was established in 1875 as an official organisation known as ‘The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association’. Over the years, BSE has facilitated the growth of the Indian corporate sector by providing an efficient capital-raising platform.
In 31st August 1957, the BSE became the first stock exchange to be recognised by the Indian Government under the Securities Contracts Regulation Act. BSE switched to an electronic trading system in 1995, in an exchange that took only fifty days. The automated, screen-based trading platform called BSE On-line trading (BOLT) had a capacity of 8 million orders per day. The BSE also introduced the world’s first centralised exchange-based internet trading system, BSEWEBx.co.in to enable investors anywhere in the world to trade on the BSE platform.
In 1986 it developed the BSE SENSEX index, 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. This popular equity index, renamed in 2013 as the S&P BSE SENSEX, remains India’s most widely tracked stock market benchmark index, traded internationally on the EUREX.
BSE has a broad shareholder-base and provides an efficient and transparent market for trading in equity, debt instruments, derivatives, mutual funds. More than 5000 companies are listed on BSE, making it world’s No. 1 exchange in terms of listed members. It also has a platform for trading in equities of small-and-medium enterprises. Altogether, the companies listed on this exchange command a total market capitalisation of 1.32 trillion USD as of January 2013. BSE is world’s fifth most active exchange in terms of number of transactions handled through its electronic trading system, and it is also one of the world’s leading exchanges (3rd largest in December 2012) for Index options trading.
BSE also provides a host of other services to capital market participants including risk management, clearing, settlement, market data services and education. It operates one of the most respected capital market educational institutes in the country (the BSE Institute Ltd.) and has a global reach with customers around the world and a nation-wide presence. BSE systems and processes are designed to safeguard market integrity, drive the growth of the Indian capital market and stimulate innovation and competition across all market segments.