Bombay Stock Exchange
From Freepedia
Image:Bombay-Stock-Exchange.jpg Image:Bombay-Stock-Exchange-2.jpg The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), located in Dalal Street, Mumbai, and established in 1875, is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. There are around 3,500 companies in the country which are listed and have a significant trading volume. As of July 2005, the market capitalization of the BSE is about Rs. 20 trillion (US $466 billion). The BSE `Sensex' is a widely used market index for the BSE. As of 2005, it is among the 5 biggest stock exchanges in the world in terms of number of transactions. Along with the NSE, the companies listed on the BSE have a combined market capitalization of $125.5 Billion.
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History
An informal group of 22 stockbrokers had been trading under a banyan tree opposite the Town Hall of Bombay from mid-1850s. This banyan tree still stands in Horniman Circle Park, Mumbai. This informal group of stockbrokers organized themselves as “The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association” which, in 1875, was formally organized as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). BSE is the oldest stock exchange in Asia, the second being the Tokyo Stock Exchange, established in 1878.
Premchand Roychand was a leading stockbroker of that time, and he assisted in setting out traditions, conventions, and procedures for the trading of stocks at Bombay Stock Exchange and they are still being followed.
Dalal Street
James M. Maclean inaugurated the Brokers’ Hall in January 1899. After the First World War, BSE was shifted to an old building, near the Bombay Town Hall and in 1928, the plot on which the BSE building now stands, on Dalal Street, was acquired, and a building was constructed in 1930.
The Bombay Stock Exchange followed the familiar outcry system for stock trading, which was replaced, in the year 1995, with screen-based eTrading. BSE is presently housed in a 28-storied Jeejeebhoy Towers, where the older structure once stood: the present building derives its name from Sir Phiroze Jamshedjee Jeejeebhoy, the chairman of the Bombay Stock Exchange from 1966, until his death in 1980.
BSE Sensex
- Main article: BSE Sensex
The BSE Sensex is a value-weighted index composed of 30 companies, with the base April 1979 = 100. The set of companies in the index is essentially fixed. These companies account for around one-fifth of the market capitalization of the BSE.
BSE - other Indices
Apart from BSE Sensex, which is the most popular stock index in India, BSE uses other stock Indices as well:
- BSE 100
- BSE 500
- BSEPSU
- BSEMIDCAP
- BSESMLCAP
- BSEBANKEX
The stock market has grown by more than four times from January 1990 to today. Using information from April 1979 onwards, the long-run rate of return on the BSE Sensex can be estimated to be 0.52% per week (continuously compounded) with a standard deviation of 3.67%. This translates to 27% per annum, which translates to roughly 18% per annum after compensating for inflation.
