Brussels Stock Exchange

The Brussels Stock Exchange (BSE) (French: Bourse de Bruxelles, Dutch: Beurs van Brussel) was founded in Brussels, Belgium by Napoleonic decree in 1801. On September 22, 2000, the BSE merged with Paris Bourse, Lisbon Stock Exchange and the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, to form Euronext N.V., the first pan-European exchange for equities and derivatives, with common trading and clearing of all products, and was renamed Euronext Brussels. The most well known index on the Brussels Stock Exchange is the BEL20.

The building

The building that houses the Brussels Stock Exchange does not have a distinct name, though it is usually called simply the Bourse. It is located on Anspach Boulevard, and is the namesake of the Beursplein/Place de la Bourse, which is, after the Grand Place, the second most important square in Brussels.

As part of the covering of the river Senne for health and aesthetic reasons in the 1860s and 1870s, a massive program of beautification of the city centre was undertaken. Architect Léon-Pierre Suys, as part of his proposal for covering of the Senne, designed a building to become the centre of the rapidly expanding business sector. It was to be located on the former butter market, (itself situated on the ruins of the former Recollets Franciscan convent) on the newly created Anspach Boulevard (then called Central Boulevard).

The building was erected from 1868 to 1873, and mixes elements of the Neo-Renaissance and Second Empire architectural styles. It has an abundance of ornaments and sculptures, created by famous artists, including Auguste Rodin.

Amsterdam Stock Exchange

• A bond from the Dutch East India Company, dating from 7 November 1623, for the amount of 2,400 florins. The bond was stolen from the Amsterdam Municipal Archive and cheaply bought by a collective of German investors, who refuse to return the stolen property.

History

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange is considered the oldest in the world. It was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or "VOC") for dealings in its printed stocks and bonds. It was subsequently renamed the Amsterdam Bourse and was the first to formally begin trading in securities.

The European Option Exchange (EOE) was founded in 1978 in Amsterdam as a futures and options exchange. In 1983 it started a stock market index, called the EOE index, consisting of the 25 largest companies that trade on the stock exchange. In 1997 the Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the EOE merged, and its blue chip index was renamed AEX, for "Amsterdam EXchange". It is now managed by Euronext Amsterdam.

The former Stock Exchange building was the Beurs van Berlage.

Channel Islands Stock Exchange

The Channel Islands Stock Exchange (CISX) is a stock exchange operating in St. Peter Port, Guernsey. It was founded as a company limited both by guarantee and by shares. The aim of CISX is to be the premier offshore stock exchange in the European time zone and the Exchange of choice for the listing of investment funds, debt instruments and the shares of companies.

CISX was established in October 1998. Since than, it has experienced rapid growth. It is an integral part of the infrastructure upon which the top tier finance centre of Guernsey relies and offers a service and structure unique in the European time zone.

It provides listing facility and screen-based trading for local and international trading companies, investment companies - both open and closed-ended funds - specialist debt securities and Channel Islands depository receipts (CIDRS). These includes specialist securities, including, Eurobonds, Structured Debt, Warrants and SPVs; and investment funds.

Some of the strengths of CISX are competitive pricing, responsive and approachable market authority that meets daily to consider applications for listings, international standards of issuer regulation, enhanced marketability and added value service, and premier location.

Casablanca Stock Exchange

The Casablanca Stock Exchange (French: La Bourse de Casablanca) is a stock exchange in Casablanca, Morocco. The Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE), which achieves one of the best performances in the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), is Africa's second largest Bourse after Johannesburg Stock Exchange, South Africa and is the third oldest stock exchange in Africa. It was established in 1929 and currently has 16 members and 71 listed securities with a total market capitalisation of $96,3 billion as of May 21th 2008.

The exchange is relatively modern, having experienced reform in 1993. The CSE installed an electronic trading system, and is now organized as two markets: the Central Market and a Block Trade Market, for block trades.

In 1997 the CSE opened a central scrip depository, Maroclear.

Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange

Egypt's Stock Exchange (CASE) is comprised of two exchanges, Cairo and Alexandria, both of which are governed by the same board of directors and share the same trading, clearing and settlement systems. The Alexandria Stock Exchange was officially established in 1883, with Cairo following in 1903.

Both exchanges were very active in the 1940s, and the combined Egyptian Stock Exchange ranked fifth in the world. The central planning and socialist policies adopted in the mid 1950's led to the Stock Exchange's dormancy between 1961 and 1992.

In the 1990s, the Egyptian government's restructuring and economic reform program resulted in the revival of the Egyptian stock market, and a major change in the organisation of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges took place in January 1997 with the election of a new board of directors and the establishment of a number of board committees.

Under the chairman at that time, Sherif Raafat, the board of directors determined to modernise the Exchange. Steps taken since then have included:

* creating a coherent organisation structure with clear division of authority and responsibilities
* deciding to install a new state-of-the-art trading, clearing and settling system conforming to international standards (In May 1998 a contract was signed with EFA Software Ltd., a Canadian company, to this end)
* developing new membership and trading rules, and arbitration and dispute resolution procedures
* Planning the improvement of the clearing, settlement and payment systems

By the end of November 1998, these efforts had started to bear fruit and there were 833 listed companies on the Egyptian Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of approximately L.E. 71.3 billion (up from 627 companies listed in 1991 with a market capitalization of L.E. 8.8 billion).

Budapest Stock Exchange

Brief history of the Exchange

The Hungarian Stock Exchange, the ancestor of today’s Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) started its operation on 18 January 1864 in Pest. Although the institution was set up as a stock exchange, four years after its inception it acquired the Grain Hall, the centre of grain trade, becoming the newly created Budapest Stock and Commodity Exchange (BSCE). Following 1889 the stock prices of companies listed on the Budapest Stock Exchange were also published in Vienna, Frankfurt, London and Paris, attesting to the international importance of the BSE. From the1890s Hungarian government bonds were regularly traded on the stock exchanges of London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.

Following World War II, after the nationalisation of the majority of private Hungarian firms, the government officially dissolved the Budapest Stock and Commodity Exchange, and the exchange’s assets became state property.

After the re-establishment, on 21 June, 1990, the BSE re-opened its doors with 41 founding members and one single equity, IBUSZ, the Budapest Stock Exchange.

The open-outcry system of the physical trading floor that characterized the spot market functioned with partial electronic support until 1995. From 1995 until November, 1998 securities trading took place concurrently on the trading floor and in a remote trading system, when the new MultiMarket Trading System (MMTS), based entirely on remote trading was launched. The traditional “battlefield rumble” of the physical trading floor ceased within a year by September 1999, at which time physical trading was entirely replaced by the electronic remote trading platform of the derivatives market.

In April, 2000, after twelve years of operations as an independent legal person, the new BSE Council decided to convert to a business association in order to maintain and strengthen its competitive position.

The year 2004 brought some decisive events in the life of the Exchange. A major restructuring took place in the ownership structure of the BSE, involving the purchase of a majority stake in the Exchange by strong Austrian banks, together with Wiener Börse and Österreichische Kontrollbank AG.

Due to the integration of the activities of the Budapest Stock Exchange and of the Budapest Commodity Exchange, as of 2 November 2005, commodity trading also started on the BSE

Bucharest Stock Exchange

HISTORY

Pre-World War II

The Bucharest Exchange opened on 1 December 1882 in the building of the Chamber of Commerce in Bucharest. It was regulated by the "Law on exchanges, securities and commodities brokers" ("Legea asupra Burselor, Mijlocitorilor de Schimb şi Mijlocitorilor de Mărfuri") passed one year earlier. There were 21 securities quoted (6 stocks and 15 commercial paper issues) and it was also used for trading commodities. In 1904 a new "Law on commercial exchanges" ("Legea asupra burselor de comerţ") was passed. Among other things, the new law separated securities trading from commodities trading and introduced a Clearing house, which improved investor confidence. The number of quoted securities also increased to 43 (21 stocks and 22 commercial papers).

Market activity was relatively low until 1916 when, due to Romania's entering World War I, trading was suspended altogether. The exchange was reopened after the war and trading and market capitalization increased rapidly based on the setting of many new companies and strong investor demand for securities. Strong growth was driven first by transportation and banking stocks and, after 1925, by speculation with oil companies' stocks (oil stocks accounted for over 75% of market turnover).

After an extended period of strong growth, stock prices fell sharply with the start of the 1929 Great Depression, reaching their lowest historical level in 1932. Beginning with 1933, the exchange started to recover, with prices and trading volume reaching the highest level in interbellum history in 1939. The exchange continued trading through World War II and market turnover even increased. In 1945, after the communist regime seized power, the Bucharest Exchange, as a capitalist institution, was closed and securities trading disappeared for the following 50 years.

Post-Communist

After the Romanian Revolution of 1989, the exchange became necessary again. The Bucharest Stock Exchange was reopened on 21 April 1995 in the building of the National Bank of Romania. The exchange started trading in November, with only 9 quoted stocks and weekly trading sessions. In the first year, there was scarcely any activity. Trading started to increase in 1997, when the number of quoted stocks increased to 76, and volume and prices increased rapidly in the first half of the year. However, this rapid growth was followed in the second half of the year by a strong bear market, due to some contagion effect from the East Asian financial crisis as well as to domestic problems. The newly introduced BET index fell 24% in the last three months of 1997 and a further 50% in 1998.

In 1998 listed stocks were separated in two tiers, the exchange introduced daily trading and the National Bank of Romania became the settlement bank. In trying to improve investor confidence, in 1999 the exchange delisted many companies which had various problems, although it allowed their stocks to continue to be traded using its mechanisms. However, market evolution was mixed until 2001.

The exchange turned to a bull market in 2001, strong growth in capitalisation, trading volume and stock prices lasting up to the present. In the next years, stock prices soared, registering record increases. In 2002, BET index increased by 117.5% and, according to Financial Times, BSE has grown fastest among world exchanges that year.

New instruments were introduced by a management of Vienna Stock Exchange in 2001 with a new listing structure and listing of the first municipal bonds. However, Bond trading has been very thin until now, partly because of repeated postponing of the listing of government bonds.

On 14 February 2008, the first foreign company is listed: Erste Bank der oesterreichischen Sparkassen AG (Erste Bank) having the symbol EBS.