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Stock Exchange

Stock exchange is a market in which securities are bought and sold. There are stock exchanges in most capital cities, as well as in the largest provincial cities in many countries, and over twenty in Britain. The principal stock exchange in Britain is known as the Stock Exchange, and is located in Throgmorton Street in the City of London; the New York Stock Exchange is located in and is known as Wall Street. Continental European exchanges are often referred to as Bourses. The economic importance of stock exchanges is that they facilitate saving and investment, first, through making it possible for investors to dispose of securities quickly if they wish to do so and, secondly, in channelling savings into productive investments. Ready marketability requires that new issues should be made or backed by reputable borrowers or institutions, that information should be available on existing securities, and that should be both a legal framework and market rules to prevent fraud and sharp practice. Stock exchanges have their own rules and con­ventions, but their functioning depends also on the existence of company and other law and financial intermediaries, such as the issuing houses.

The British Stock Exchange, founded in 1773, devel­oped from informal exchanges in coffee houses in the City of London. It is managed by council of members. There are some 3,500 members, who alone may deal or even enter the floor of the exchange.

Stock-brokers act as agents for the public and bay from and sell to jobbers. Members are formed into a declining number of companies and there are now only 192 broking firms and ninety-one jobbing firms on the London Ex­change. Business is conducted entirely by word of mouth and although jobbers and brokers keep their own regis­ters and may record details of a "bargain" (as all transac­tions are called) on the official list, they are not obliged to do so. Even today there are no official statistics of the volume of transactions, although prices at the exchange are widely available in the press. The market value of the securities quoted on the exchange is about J120 billion, of which rather more than half are foreign securities.

Index numbers indicating changes in the average prices of shares on the Stock Exchange are called share indices. The indices are constructed by taking a selection of shares and "weighing" the percentage changes in prices together as an indication of aggregate movements in share prices. Roughly speaking, a share index shows percentage changes in the market value of a portfolio compared with is value in the base year of the index. Index numbers are published by several daily papers and weekly journals.