Frankfurt Stock Exchange

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange ( _de. FWB Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse) is a stock exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is one of the biggest and most efficient exchange places in the world. It is owned and operated by Deutsche Börse, which also owns the European futures exchange Eurex and clearing company Clearstream.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange has over 90 percent of turnover in the German market and a big share in the European market. Here the Frankfurt Stock Exchange floor trading loses, but in fast developing and expanding electronic trading (Xetra trading system) the FSE gains in European and international trade: partner-exchanges adopted the Xetra (trading system) (as the Vienna Stock Exchange in 1999, the Irish Stock Exchange in 2000 and the Budapest Stock Exchange in 2003); consolidation continues.

Mainly through Xetra, the German stock market was opened to foreign investors and market participants. About 47% of the 300 market participants in Frankfurt come from abroad.

The trading indices in Frankfurt are DAX, DAXplus, CDAX, DivDAX, LDAX, MDAX, SDAX, TecDAX, VDAX and EuroStoxx 50.

Trading runs from 09:00 to 17:30 with closing auction from 17:30-17:35. In November 2003, Late DAX was introduced running from 17:45 to 20:00 and in 2006 X-DAX was introduced running from 17:45-22:00 (in line with US trading hours). []

History

The origins of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange go back to the 9th century and a free letter by Emperor Louis the German to hold free trade fairs. By the 16th century Frankfurt developed into a wealthy and busy city with an economy based on trade and financial services.

In 1585 a bourse was established to set up fixed currency exchange rates. During the following centuries Frankfurt developed into one of the world's first stock exchanges - next to London and Paris. Bankers like Mayer Amschel Rothschild and Max Warburg had substantial influence on Frankfurt's financial trade.

In 1874 Frankfurt Stock Exchange moved into its new building at Börsenplatz.

It was only in 1949 after World War II that the Frankfurt Stock Exchange finally established as the leading stock exchange in Germany with consequently incoming national and international investments.

During the 1990s the Frankfurt Stock Exchange was also bourse for the Neuer Markt (German for "New Market") as part of the world wide dot-com boom.

In 1993 the "Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse" (Frankfurt Stock Exchange) became Deutsche Börse AG, operating businesses for the exchange.

From the early 1960s onwards the Frankfurt Stock Exchange took advantage of the close by Bundesbank which effectively decided on financial policies in Europe until the introduction of the euro in 2002. Since then the exchange profits from the presence of the European Central Bank in Frankfurt am Main.

In 2002 and 2004 Deutsche Börse was in advanced negotiations to take over London Stock Exchange, which were broken off twice.

Today, with a total turnover of €5.2 trillion per year the Frankfurt Stock Exchange strengthens its position as the world's 3rd largest trade-place for stocks and the world's 6th largest by market capitalization.

See also

*List of banks in Germany
*Chi-X, an order-driven pan-European equity exchange

Further reading

* [http://www.hwwa.de/Publikationen/Discussion_Paper/2004/297.pdf Financial Market Integration in a Wider European Union]
* [http://www.die-bank.de/index.asp?issue=042002&art=179 International financial centres: rivals or partner?]
* [http://www.iflr.com/?Page=17&ISS=20673&SID=589756 Assessment on Frankfurt's failed take-over of LSE]

References

External links

* [http://boerse-frankfurt.com/pip/dispatch/en/pip/private_investors/home Frankfurt Stock Exchange - Website for investors]
* [http://www.eurocapitalmarkets.org/ European Capital Markets Institute, Brussels]
* [http://www.fese.be/ Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE), Brussels]
* [http://www.bis.org/ Bank for International Settlements, Basel]
* [http://boerse.n24.de/ Börse N24.de]
* [http://www.boerse.de/ Börse.de]
* [http://www.boerse-online.de/ Börse-Online.de]
* [http://www.euroland.com// Euroland.com]
* [http://www.investors-daily.de/ Investor´s Daily]