National Stock Exchange of India

The National Stock Exchange of India Limited or S&P CNX NIFTY (NSE), is a Mumbai-based stock exchange. It is the largest stock exchange in India in terms of daily turnover and number of trades, for both equities and derivative trading. Though a number of other exchanges exist, NSE and the Bombay Stock Exchange are the two most significant stock exchanges in India, and between them are responsible for the vast majority of share transactions. The NSE's key index is the S&P CNX Nifty, known as the Nifty, an index of fifty major stocks weighted by market capitalisation.

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. There are at least 2 foreign investors NYSE Euronext and Goldman Sachs who have taken a stake in the NSE. As of 2006[update], the NSE VSAT terminals, 2799 in total, cover more than 1500 cities across India. In October 2007, the equity market capitalization of the companies listed on the NSE was US$ 1.46 trillion, making it the second largest stock exchange in South Asia. NSE is the third largest Stock Exchange in the world in terms of the number of trades in equities. It is the second fastest growing stock exchange in the world with a recorded growth of 16.6%.

Origins

NSE building at BKCThe National Stock Exchange of India 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. In April 1993, it was recognized as a stock exchange under the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956. NSE commenced operations in the Wholesale Debt Market (WDM) segment in June 1994. The Capital Market (Equities) segment of the NSE commenced operations in November 1994, while operations in the Derivatives segment commenced in June 2000.


Innovations
NSE has remained in the forefront of modernization of India's capital and financial markets, and its pioneering efforts include:

* Being the first national, anonymous, electronic limit order book (LOB) exchange to trade securities in India. Since the success of the NSE, existent market and new market structures have followed the "NSE" model.
* Setting up the first clearing corporation "National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd." in India. NSCCL was a landmark in providing innovation on all spot equity market (and later, derivatives market) trades in India.
* Co-promoting and setting up of National Securities Depository Limited, first depository in India.
* Setting up of S&P CNX Nifty.
* NSE pioneered commencement of Internet Trading in February 2000, which led to the wide popularization of the NSE in the broker community.
* Being the first exchange that, in 1996, proposed exchange traded derivatives, particularly on an equity index, in India. After four years of policy and regulatory debate and formulation, the NSE was permitted to start trading equity derivatives
* Being the first and the only exchange to trade GOLD ETFs (exchange traded funds) in India.
* NSE has also launched the NSE-CNBC-TV18 media centre in association with CNBC-TV18, a

Markets
Currently, NSE has the following major segments of the capital market:

Equity
Futures and Options
Retail Debt Market
Wholesale Debt Market
Currency futures

Hours
NSE's normal trading sessions are from 09:55am to 03:30pm on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.[7]


Indices
NSE also set up as index services firm known as India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL) and has launched several stock indices, including [8] :

* S&P CNX Nifty
* CNX Nifty Junior
* CNX 100 (= S&P CNX Nifty + CNX Nifty Junior)
* S&P CNX 500 (= CNX 100 + 400 major players across 72 industries)
* CNX Midcap (introduced on 18 July 2005 replacing CNX Midcap 200)

Certifications
NSE also conducts online examination and awards certification, under its programmes of NSE's Certification in Financial Markets (NCFM)[3]. Currently, certifications are available in 19 modules, covering different sectors of financial and capital markets. Branches of the NSE are located throughout India.