About NSE (National Stock Exchange)

The National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE), is a Mumbai-based stock exchange. It is the largest stock exchange in India and the third largest in the world in terms of volume of transactions. NSE is mutually-owned by a set of leading financial institutions, banks, insurance companies and other financial intermediaries in India but its ownership and management operate as separate entities. As of 2006, the NSE VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India . In July 2007, the NSE had a total market capitalization of 42,74,509 crore INR making it the second-largest stock market in South Asia in terms of market-capitalization. It is also larger then the famous Bombay Stock Exchange in terms of market capitalization.

The National Stock Exchange of India Limited has genesis in the report of the High Powered Study Group on Establishment of New Stock Exchanges. It recommended promotion of a National Stock Exchange by financial institutions (FIs) to provide access to investors from all across the country on an equal footing. Based on the recommendations, NSE was promoted by leading Financial Institutions at the behest of the Government of India and was incorporated in November 1992 as a tax-paying company unlike other stock exchanges in the country.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) operates a nation-wide, electronic market, offering trading in Capital Market, Derivatives Market and Currency Derivatives segments including equities, equities based derivatives, Currency futures and options, equity based ETFs, Gold ETF and Retail Government Securities. Today NSE network stretches to more than 1,500 locations in the country and supports more than 2, 30,000 terminals.

With more than 10 asset classes in offering, NSE has taken many initiatives to strengthen the securities industry and provides several new products like Mini Nifty, Long Dated Options and Mutual Fund Service System. Responding to market needs, NSE has introduced services like DMA, FIX capabilities, co-location facility and mobile trading to cater to the evolving need of the market and various categories of market participants.

NSE has made its global presence felt with cross-listing arrangements, including license agreements covering benchmark indexes for U.S. and Indian equities with CME Group and has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore Exchange (SGX) to cooperate in the development of a market for India-linked products and services to be listed on SGX. The two exchanges also will look into a bilateral securities trading link to enable investors in one country to seamlessly trade on the other country’s exchange.