'BSE world's top bourse'

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has extended its lead as the world’s top exchange in terms of the number of listed companies, outpacing major peers like the NYSE, Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange by almost 100 per cent.

The BSE had 5,174 companies listed on its platform at the end of last month, outpacing its closest rival Canadian bourse TMX Group by about 1,000 firms or 20 per cent, according to the latest data available with the World Federation of Exchanges. The number of listed companies on BSE platform is almost double that of major bourses like the UK’s London Stock Exchange and American bourses like Nasdaq and NYSE. Another Indian bourse, National Stock Exchange, is ranked 10th, with 1,660 listed companies.

The listed firms on BSE has increased from 5,115 in January to 5,174 in October, the WFE data showed. The number of companies listed on BSE rose by 11 companies in October alone.

BSE is followed by TMX Group, BME Spanish Exchanges, London SE Group, Nasdaq OMX, NYSE Euronext (US), Tokyo SE Group, Australian SE, Korea Exchange and NSE in the top 10.

While TMX has 3,964 listed companies, London Stock Exchange has 2,782 companies, Nasdaq OMX has 2,598 and NYSE Euronext (US) has 2,345.

WFE said the data is based on number of companies which have shares listed on an exchange at the end of October, split into domestic and foreign, excluding investment funds and unit trusts.

A company with several classes of shares is counted just once, according to WFE.

According to the data, all the listed companies on the BSE are of domestic origin — which are firms that are incorporated in the same country where the exchange is located.

In terms of number of listed foreign companies, London Stock Exchange is on the top position with 583 such entities, followed by NYSE Euronext (US) with 525 listed overseas firms.