The Largest Stock Markets Worldwide

A stock exchange is a regulated marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of various financial securities such as stocks.

Besides the well-known American markets, there are many markets in the world that can present intriguing investment opportunities, provided that you do the appropriate research.

Below, we list the 10 largest stock exchanges in the world based on their market capitalization in March 2019.

New York Stock Exchange, The United States

Founded in 1792, the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE for short, has been the world’s largest stock exchange since the end of World War I. Currently, its market cap is about $22.99 trillion. The NYSE lists over 3,000 companies ranging from blue chips to new high-growth companies. The NYSE alone accounts for roughly 40% of the world’s stock market capitalization.

The indices representing stocks trading in the NYSE are the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 and the NYSE Composite index.

NASDAQ, The United States

The NASDAQ Stock Market was founded in 1971 in New York City. The NASDAQ has a market capitalization of $13.29 trillion. Many of the world’s largest technology companies including Apple ($AAPL), Microsoft ($MSFT), Facebook ($FB), Amazon ($AMZN), Alphabet ($GOOGL), Tesla ($TSLA), and Cisco ($CSCO) are listed here.

Its main index is the NASDAQ Composite index. The NASDAQ-100 and the NASDAQ Financial-100 indices track the 100 largest non-financial and financial companies, respectively.

Tokyo Stock Exchange, Japan

Founded in 1878, the Tokyo Stock Exchange, TSE for short, is among the top 10 largest stock exchanges in the world. It has a market capitalization of about $6 trillion. The TSE’s benchmark index is Nikkei 225, which includes such notable companies as Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Honda and Sony.

Euronext, the Eurozone

The Euronext is a pan-European stock exchange a presence in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Lisbon, Dublin, Oslo and Paris. Euronext combines five national markets in Europe, trading stocks of major companies of each country participant, and manages the main national indices representing these stocks, namely the AEX-index, BEL 20, CAC 40 and PSI 20. Euronext lists over 1,300 companies with a combined market cap of over $4.82 trillion. Stocks listed at Euronext trade in euros. Its monthly trading volume is about $174 billion. The list of companies traded on the Euronext includes L’Oreal, Nokia, Peugeot, Renault, Sanofi, Unilever, and Ubisoft.

Shanghai Stock Exchange, China

Shanghai Stock Exchange, or SSE, is the largest stock exchange in China with a market capitalization of over $4.02 trillion. The Shanghai Exchange in its modern form was founded in 1990. Stocks listed at the Shanghai Stock Exchange have A shares that trade in local currency and B shares priced in the US dollars for foreign investors. The SSE’s index is the SSE Composite Index listing companies like Air China, Bank of China, and PetroChina.

London Stock Exchange, The United Kingdom

The London Stock Exchange, also known as LSE, was founded in 1698. The LSE was the world’s largest stock exchange until the end of the First World War. Nowadays it has a market cap of over $4 trillion and lists over 3,000 companies from 60 different countries. The LSE’s indices are FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 250 Index, FTSE 350 Index, FTSE SmallCap Index and FTSE All-Share Index. The LSE is owned and operated by the London Stock Exchange Group, which was created in 2007 following the merger of the LSE with the Milan based Borsa Italia. Some of the biggest companies listed here are British Petroleum, Barclays, and GlaxoSmithKline.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hong Kong

The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, or SEHK, was founded in 1891. It has a market capitalization of $3.93 trillion and over 2,000 listed companies, about half of which are from mainland China. In 2017, the exchange closed its physical trading floor to shift to electronic trading. Some of the biggest companies listed at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are AIA, Tencent Holdings, PetroChina, China Mobile, and HSBC Holdings.

The Hang Seng index, abbreviated as HSI, is the main indicator of the overall market performance in Hong Kong.

Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China

Founded in 1990, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, or SZSE, is one of the only two independently operating stock exchanges in China with a market cap of over $3.45 trillion. Most of the companies listed here are based in China and trade shares in Yuan. The Shenzhen Stock Exchange launched a ChiNext board in 2009 consisting of high-growth, high-tech startups similar to NASDAQ.

The major index measuring the SZSE’s performance is the SZSE Component index used along with the SZSE 100 (blue chip), SZSE 200, and SZSE 300.

Toronto Stock Exchange, Canada

Founded in 1852, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has over 2,207 listed companies with a market capitalization of about $2.36 trillion. All of Canada’s ‘Big Five’ commercial banks are listed at the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The S&P/TSX Composite is the main index of the Toronto Stock Exchange, the other two indices being the S&P/TSX Composite and the S&P/TSX 60.

Bombay Stock Exchange, India

Founded in 1875 and located in Mumbai, the Bombay Stock Exchange a.k.a BSE was the first stock exchange in Asia. It has a market capitalization of about $2.18 trillion. This stock exchange has the highest number of companies on its list yet most of them are small caps.

Its benchmark index is the S&P BSE SENSEX index used to measure overall performance of the exchange.