BSE OLDEST STOCK EXCHANGE IN ASIA

The oldest stock exchange in Asia (established in 1875) and the first in the country to be granted permanent recognition under the Securities Contract Regulation Act, 1956, Bombay Stock Exchange Limited (BSE) has had an interesting rise to prominence over the past 133 years.

While BSE is now synonymous with Dalal Street, it was not always so. The first venues of the earliest stock broker meetings in the 1850s were in rather natural environs - under banyan trees - in front of the Town Hall, where Horniman Circle is now situated. A decade later, the brokers moved their venue to another set of foliage, this time under banyan trees at the junction of Meadows Street and what is now called Mahatma Gandhi Road. As the number of brokers increased, they had to shift from place to place, but they always overflowed to the streets. At last, in 1874, the brokers found a permanent place, and one that they could, quite literally, call their own. The new place was, aptly, called Dalal Street ( Brokers' Street).

In 2002, the name "The Stock Exchange, Mumbai" was changed to Bombay Stock Exchange. Subsequently on August 19, 2005, the exchange turned into a corporate entity from an Association of Persons (AoP) and renamed as Bombay Stock Exchange Limited.

BSE, which had introduced securities trading in India, replaced its open outcry system of trading in 1995, with the totally automated trading through the BSE Online trading (BOLT) system. The BOLT network was expanded nationwide in 1997.

The journey of BSE is as eventful and interesting as the history of India's securities market. In fact, as India's biggest bourse, in terms of listed companies and market capitalisation, BSE has played a pioneering role in the development of the Indian securities market. It is surely BSE's pride that almost every leading corporate in India has sourced BSE's services in capital raising and is listed with BSE.

Even in terms of an orderly growth, much before the actual legislations were enacted, BSE had formulated a comprehensive set of Rules and Regulations for the securities market.. It had also laid down best practices which were adopted subsequently by 23 stock exchanges which were set up after India gained its independence.

BSE, as a brand, has been and is synonymous with the capital market in India. Its SENSEX is the benchmark equity index that reflects the health of the Indian economy.