Bombay Stock Exchange facts for kids

BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange which is located on Dalal Street, known as the Wall Street of Mumbai, in turn described as the New York of India. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, it is the oldest stock exchange in Asia, and also the tenth oldest in the world. The BSE is the world's 8th largest stock exchange with a market capitalization exceeding US$4.5 trillion as of January 2024.

History

Bombay Stock Exchange logo until June 2023

Bombay Stock Exchange was founded by Premchand Roychand in 1875. While BSE Limited is now synonymous with Dalal Street, it was not always so. In the 1850s, five stock brokers gathered together under a Banyan tree in front of Mumbai Town Hall, where Horniman Circle is now situated. A decade later, the brokers moved their location to under the banyan trees at the junction of Meadows Street and what was then called Esplanade Road, now Mahatma Gandhi Road. With a rapid increase in the number of brokers, they had to shift places repeatedly. At last, in 1874, the brokers found a permanent location, the one that they could call their own. The brokers group became an official organization known as "The Native Share & Stock Brokers Association" in 1875.

On 12 March 1993, a car bomb exploded in the basement of the building during the 1993 Bombay bombings. The BSE is also a Partner Exchange of the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative, joining in September 2012. BSE established India INX on 30 December 2016. India INX is the first international exchange of India. BSE became the first stock exchange in the country to launch commodity derivatives contract in gold and silver in October 2018.

BSE was demutualized and corporatized on 19 May 2007, pursuant to the BSE (Corporatization and Demutualization) Scheme, 2005 notified by SEBI. It was listed on NSE on 3 February 2017.

Market statistics

• The Bimal Jalan Committee report estimated that barely 3% of India's population invested in the stock market, as compared to 27% in the United States and 10% in China.
• The Economic Times estimated that as of April 2018, 6 crore (60 million) retail investors had invested their savings in stocks in India, either through direct purchases of equities or through mutual funds.
• Morgan Stanley has noted that the Indian stocks have been through four bear markets in 25 years, or since foreign investors became actively involved with Indian equities. The Economic Times estimate that the Indian stock market sees a bear market on average once every 3 years, similar to the US market. It uses the Nifty 50 index as a reference point and identifies eight 20% drops in the last 25 years.
• According to SEBI, during FY 2022–23, 73% of mutual fund units were redeemed within 2 years of investment. Only investments in 3% of the units continued for more than 5 years.
• Another study conducted by the SEBI, approximately 89% of individual stock traders in the equity Futures & Options (F&O) segment incurred losses during the financial year 2021-22.
• According to a Reserve Bank of India report, mutual funds attracted 6% of household savings in FY2023 and less than 1% went into direct equities. Almost 95% of household savings in India are held in bank deposits, including fixed deposit, provident fund, PPF, life insurance, and various small savings schemes.
• Maharashtra accounts for the most number of investors. More than 15 million or 21 percent of registered investors with the BSE are from the state, followed by Gujarat (8.6 million), Uttar Pradesh (5.3 million), Tamil Nadu (4.3 million) and Karnataka (4.2 million). These five states account for more than half or 53 percent of all the registered investors.

BSE from 1990 to 2020 (Indices S&P BSE Sensex)

Indian stock market indices S&P BSE 500 (1999 to 2020)

Chart of S&P BSE SENSEX monthly data from January 1991 to May 2013

BSE Sensex from December 1979 to May 2012 (daily closings)

See also

In Spanish: Bolsa de Valores de Bombay para niños