The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE India) is the oldest stock exchange in Asia and the first in India. Established in 1875 as an AOP (Association of Persons), BSE India is now a corporatized and demutualised entity incorporated under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956. With demutualization, BSE India has Deutsche Börse and Singapore Stock Exchange as its strategic partners, two of world's best managed stock exchanges providing BSE live updates to the investors in their countries.
The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE India) is situated at Dalal Street in Mumbai and has over 5,000 companies that are listed on it. The BSE India uses the latest technologies in the IT field to provide a single place where traders from across the world can buy and sell a stock in the Indian stock market.
Today, BSE India is the world's number one stock exchange in terms of the number of listed companies and the world's fifth in transaction numbers. The market capitalization as on August 31, 2009 stood at USD 1.09 trillion. For easy reference, a stock listed on the BSE India is classified into A, B, S, T and Z groups. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE India) also offers electronic trading system called BOLT providing BSE live stock prices.
BSE India also offered India's first stock market index the Sensex (Sensitive index). It is an index of 30 stocks representing 12 major sectors. The Sensex is constructed on a 'free-float' methodology, and is sensitive to movement of its constituents and market sentiments. Apart from the SENSEX, the BSE India offers 21 indices, including 12 sectoral indices in Indian share market.
BSE India has an index cooperation agreement with Deutsche Borse stock exchange so the SENSEX and other indices are available to investors in Europe and America and investors are also able to check live BSE stock quotes there. Barclays Global Investors through its iShares® brand, has created an ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) which tracks the SENSEX. The ETF enables investors in Hong Kong to take an exposure to share market India.
Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE India) Sources: