10 Largest Stock Exchanges in the World

Introduction

 

Every morning at 9:15 AM, trading starts on the National Stock Exchange, and it ends at 3:30 PM in the afternoon (A similar timing is there in almost all the stock markets in their local time). 

 

During this period, the whole market buzzes with activity. A lot of people rely on the stock market for their livelihood, either directly or indirectly, and therefore, they are crucial for the financial well-being of a country.

 

A stock exchange is a marketplace where stockbrokers and traders buy and sell securities, including stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, bonds, derivatives, etc. There are 60 stock exchanges in the World, and most of these stock exchanges have thousands of listed companies. 

 

Almost all of these stock exchanges are electronically operated. These exchanges provide the platform needed by various corporations all over the World to provide the general public the opportunity to invest in them. Companies belonging to all of the sectors from agriculture to IT are listed on the stock exchanges.

 

In this blog, we'll discuss the top 10 biggest stock exchanges in the World on the basis of their market capitalization.

 

 

Largest Stock Exchanges in the World:

---

Market Capitalization of top stock exchanges, Image Reference

---

1. New York Stock Exchange, United States

---

---

The New York Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange in the World, with a market capitalization of 24.49 trillion dollars as of January 2021. The exchange is located on 11 Wall Street, Lower Manhattan, New York City, and was established on May 17, 1792.

 

NYSE opens at 9:30 AM and closes at 4:00 PM ET for its core trading session. This translates to 7:00 PM to 3:30 AM IST. Trading that happens in the NYSE on a particular day influences the trading in all the other stock exchanges on the next day, and therefore, traders from all over the World follow the trading that happens on the NYSE.

 

There are 2400 companies listed on the NYSE. These companies are diversified across all sectors, and a major proportion of the World's top blue-chip stocks, Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are listed on the NYSE.

 

A few of the indices that are used to gauge the performance of the trades being undertaken on the NYSE on a particular day are NYSE Composite Index, NYSE U.S. 100 Index, Dow Jones Industrial Average, and S&P 500 Index.

 

2. NASDAQ, United States

   ---

   

---

National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations or NASDAQ is the second-largest stock exchange in the World with a market capitalization of 19.34 trillion dollars. Headquartered at 151 W, 42nd Street, New York City, NASDAQ is the World's first electronically traded stock market. 

 

More than 3,000 companies are listed on NASDAQ, including the World's biggest tech giants- Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Apart from Facebook, all four companies have a market capitalization of more than 1 trillion dollars, and Facebook is not far away.

 

NASDAQ has gained a lot of interest in the recent past, and the interest began around the period of the dot-com bubble in the late 90s. It continues to gain more and more interest from the market participants with the advancements in technology and the development for the U.S. and the World along with the same.

 

3. Shanghai Stock Exchange, China

   ---

   

   ---

   Shanghai Stock Exchange is the largest stock exchange belonging to the World's most populous country- China, and it comes under the category of the three largest stock exchanges in the World with a market capitalization of 6.5 trillion dollars. 

 

Note that the third-largest stock exchange in the World has less than a third of the market capitalization of the first and second-largest stock exchanges in the World based in the United States.

 

Established on November 26, 1990, the Shanghai Stock exchange has more than 1500 companies listed on it, and the SSE Composite Index is used to look at the broad sentiment of this exchange.

 

Huge large-cap stocks, including PetroChina, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, and Agriculture Bank of China, are listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

 

4. Hong Kong Exchange

   ---

   

   ---

   Hong Kong comes under the category of the World's important financial hubs. Hong Kong provides an all-encompassing and high-quality financial environment to people working in the financial industry. Due to this, it has attracted a lot of foreign market participants. 

 

Founded on February 3, 1891, the Hong Kong Exchange is the World's fourth largest and Asia's second-largest stock exchange with a market capitalization of 6.48 trillion dollars. 

 

It is almost as big as the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and provided it keeps up the tremendous pace at which it has developed in the past; it can surpass the Shanghai Stock Exchange in the near future.

 

More than 2000 companies are listed on the Hong Kong Exchange. AIA, Tencent Holdings are the largest ones.

 

5. Japan Exchange Group

   ---

   

   ---

   The Japan Exchange Group was formed by the merger of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Osaka Securities Exchange on January 1, 2013. Together, they have a market capitalization of 6.35 trillion dollars which is very close to the market capitalizations of the third and fourth-largest stock exchanges in the World. 

 

There are more than 3,700 companies listed on the Japan Exchange Group. Almost all of these companies are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The benchmark index of the Tokyo Stock Exchange is Nikkei, and Toyota, Suzuki, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Sony are a few of the eminent companies listed here.

 

6. Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China

   ---

   

   ---

   Out of the three stock exchanges in China, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange is the smallest. Yet, it has a market capitalization of 4.9 trillion dollars. The total market capitalization of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Exchange, and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange would be approximately equal to the market capitalization of NASDAQ.

 

The Shenzhen Stock Exchange was founded on December 1, 1990, and it has almost 2300 listed companies.

 

7. Euronext, Europe

   ---

   

   ---

   EURONEXT is an abbreviation for European New Exchange Technology. It is a pan-European stock exchange which makes it the biggest and the most liquid stock exchange in Europe and the seventh-largest stock exchange in the World. 

 

It was founded on September 22, 2000, and has a market capitalization of $4.88 trillion. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The top 5 companies (by market capitalization) listed on EURONEXT are Procter & Gamble, LVMH, Royal Dutch Shell, Merck & Co., and L'Oreal.

 

8. London Stock Exchange Group

   ---

   

   ---

   The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) is a stock exchange and financial information company headquartered in London. It owns the London Stock Exchange, Refinitiv, LSEG Technology, FTSE Russell and has a majority stake in LCH and Tradeweb.

 

Located at the heart of the World's financial center, more than 1300 companies are listed on the LSEG, providing it a market capitalization of $3.67 trillion. A few big companies listed on the LSEG are Barclays, British Petroleum, Toyota Motors, Unilever, HSBC, and AstraZeneca.

 

9. National Stock Exchange of India

   ---

   

   ---

   National Stock Exchange (NSE) is one of the two stock exchanges in India. The other and the older one is the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

 

Established in April 1993 and located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, NSE has a market capitalization of $2.57 trillion and is the ninth-largest stock exchange in the World. It is the largest derivative stock exchange in the World.

 

NIFTY is the benchmark index of NSE. A few of NIFTY's prominent constituents are Reliance, HDFC Bank, Infosys, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The benchmark index of BSE is Sensex. 

 

10. TMX Group, Canada

    ---

    

    ---

    Canada hosts the tenth largest stock exchange and the last member of our list- the TMX Group, headquartered in Toronto. TMX group owns the two stock exchanges in Canada-  Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), which serves the senior equity markets (mid-cap and large-cap companies are listed here), and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), which serves the public venture equity market (small-cap companies are listed here). It has a market capitalization of $2.5 trillion.

 

Around 1,500 companies are listed on the TSX and around 1,600 companies on the TSXV. A few of the big companies listed on the TSX are Fortis, CGI, National Bank of Canada, Franco-Nevada and Rogers.