An Amazing Guide To The Indian Stock Market (Useful)

Indian Stock Market – India may look like a small dot on the globe but if someone does a detailed stock market analysis, then they may find the same opportunities that they can expect from any other promising market.

Following is the article which will brief you on Indian Stock Market.

In Indian Stock Market, majority of the trading takes place on its two stock exchanges market in India which are:

        1.       The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)  and,

        2.       The  National Stock Exchange (NSE) 

1. The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE)

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is the 11^th largest stock exchange  market in the world by market capitalization as on 31 December 2012. It is located on Dalal Street, of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was established in 1875. It is India’s oldest Stock Exchange, and also one of Asia’s oldest stock exchange.

BSE traces its history to 1855, when four Gujarati and one Parsi stockbroker would gather under banyan trees in front of Mumbai’s Town Hall. As the number of stock market brokers kept increasing the location of these meetings were changed many times. In 1874, the group moved to Dalal Street and in 1875 it became an official organization known as ‘The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association’.

BSE provides market for trading in

Equity
Debt instruments
Derivatives
Mutual funds

It also has a platform for stock market trading in equities of small-and-medium enterprises (SME)

• More than 5000 companies are listed on BSE making it world’s No. 1 exchange in terms of listed members. (Source: http://www.bseindia.com).
• The companies listed on BSE Ltd command a total market capitalization of USD 1.32 Trillion as of January 2013.
• It is also one of the world’s leading exchanges (3rd largest in December 2012) for Index options trading (Source: World Federation of Exchanges).
• BSE’s popular equity index – the S&P BSE SENSEX – is India’s most widely tracked stock market benchmark index.
• It is traded internationally on the EUREX as well as leading exchanges of the BRCS nations (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa).

Functional Timing of the BSE

The hours of operation are, in terms of the local timing which is GMT+5.30. It is functional on all days of the week except Saturday, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.

2. The National Stock Exchange (NSE)

The National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. (NSE) was established in the mid-1990s as a demutualized electronic exchange. It is located in financial capital of India, Mumbai.

NSE has a market capitalization of more than US$989 billion and 1,635 companies listed as on July 2013. NSE’s flagship index, the S&P CNX Nifty, is used extensively by investors in India and around the world to take exposure to the Indian equities market.

It was started by a group of leading Indian financial institutions at the request of the Government of India in order to bring transparency to the Indian market, and it has a diversified shareholding comprising domestic and global investors. The exchange was incorporated in 1992 as a tax-paying company and was recognized as a stock exchange in 1993.

As per Wikipedia NSE offers trading in the following segments:

Equities

• Indices
• Mutual Funds
• ExchangeTraded Funds
• Initial Public Offerings
• Security Lending and Borrowing Scheme

Derivatives

• Equity Derivatives (including Global Indices like S&P 500, Dow Jones and FTSE )
• Currency Derivatives
• Interest Rate Futures

Debt

• Corporate Bonds

Equity Derivatives

Currency Derivatives

Interest Rate Futures

Debt Market

Trading Session

Trading on the equities segment takes place on all days of the week (except Saturdays and Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance). The stock market timings of the equities segment are as follows:

(1) Pre-open session

Order entry & modification Open: 09:00 hrs

Order entry & modification Close: 09:08 hrs*

*with random closure in last one minute. Pre-open order matching starts immediately after close of pre-open order entry.

(2) Regular trading session

Normal/Retail Debt/Limited Physical Market Open: 09:15 hrs

Normal/Retail Debt/Limited Physical Market Close: 17:00 hrs

Block deal session is held between 09:15 hrs and 09:50 hrs.

(3) The Closing Session is held between 17.05 hrs and 17.15 hrs.

The Exchange may however close the market on days other than the above schedule holidays or may open the market on days originally declared as holidays.

                                                                                                                                                      Source: Wikipedia

Nearly all the firms of India are listed on both the exchanges, but NSE enjoys a dominant share in spot trading.

Trading Mechanism

In both the exchanges stock market trading takes place through an open electronic limit order book, in which order matching is done by the trading computer. As this process is entirely computerized, market orders placed by investors are automatically matched with the best limit orders. Sellers and buyers are not involved in direct interaction with each other as they remain anonymous. With this order driven automated system the transparency is maintained with the display of all buy and sell orders in the trading system. These orders can be placed through brokers.

Settlement Cycle and Trading Hours

The settlement time followed for Equity spot markets is T+2 rolling settlement. For example if any trade taking place on Monday, gets settled by Wednesday. All trading on stock exchanges takes place between 9:55 am and 3:30 pm, Indian Standard Time (+ 5.5 hours GMT), Monday through Friday.

The delivery of shares is done in dematerialized form, and each exchange has its own clearing house, which assumes all settlement risk, by serving as a central counterparty.

Market Indexes

The most noticeable Indian market indexes are Sensex and Nifty, Sensex being the oldest market index for equities and it includes shares of 30 firms listed on the BSE which represent about 45% of the index’s free-float market capitalization. Sensex was created in 1986 and provides time series data from April 1979, onward.

S&P CNX Nifty; includes 50 shares listed on the NSE, which represent about 62% of its free-float market capitalization. S&P CNX Nifty was created in 1996 and provides time series data from July 1990, onward.

Market Regulation

The Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulator for the Securities market in India. The responsibility of development and regulation of the stock market lies with it. It was established in the year 1988 and was given with the statutory powers in 1992. 

How one can invest in India?

In India outside investments were started in 1990’s. Basically these foreign investments are classified into two categories as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI).

The investments in which an investor is involved in the management and operations of the company are called as FDI.  And the investments in terms of shares are treated as FPI.

If one wants to make investment in India, then one should be registered either as a foreign institutional investor (FII) or as one of the sub-accounts of one of the registered FIIs.

Foreign Institutional investors mainly consist of:

• Mutual Funds
• Endowments,
• Banks
• Asset Management etc.

Investment Opportunities for Retail Foreign Investors

Foreign entities and individuals can invest into Indian stocks through institutional investors. Investments could be made through some of the offshore instruments like,

• Depositary Receipts like American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs),
• Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

 As of now, you must have understood that the BSE and the NSE are the major stock exchanges in India. Also there are some regional stock exchanges in India.

Following is the list of regional stock exchanges.

The Bottom Line

India’s emerging markets are opening the door towards bright future of stock market growth in India. Currently the percentages of investments of Indians in the domestic stock market are very less, but with the expected growth in GDP and steady financial market, more money will come into the picture.

Stock markets in India

Learn the juice of this article in just a single minute, Stock markets in India.

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