Importance of Stock Exchange

Stock exchanges perform important roles in national economies. Most importantly, they encourage investment by providing places for buyers and sellers to trade securities. This investment, in turn, enables corporations to obtain funds to expand their businesses.

Stock News

Stock Exchange, organized market for buying and selling financial instruments known as securities, which include stocks, bonds, options, and futures. Most stock exchanges have specific locations where the trades are completed. For the stock of a company to be traded at these exchanges, it must be listed, and to be listed, the company must satisfy certain requirements. But not all stocks are bought and sold at a specific site. Such stocks are referred to as unlisted. Many of these stocks are traded over the counter—that is, by telephone or by computer.
Major stock exchanges in the United States include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), both in New York City. Far more corporations list their stock on the NYSE than on the AMEX, however. Nine smaller regional stock exchanges operate in Boston, Massachusetts; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Salt Lake City, Utah; San Francisco, California; and Spokane, Washington. In addition, most of the world’s industrialized nations have stock exchanges. Among the larger international exchanges are those in London, England; Paris, France; Milan, Italy; Hong Kong, China; Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. These stock exchanges all have a central location for trading. The major over-the-counter market in the United States is the Nasdaq Stock Market (formerly, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation [NASDAQ] system). The European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation system (EASDAQ) is the major over-the-counter market for the European Union (EU).

UPDATE 1-Six Flags delisted from New York Stock Exchange

NEW YORK, April 9 (Reuters) - Six Flags Inc said on Thursday that its common stock and preferred income equity redeemable shares were suspended from trading on the New York Stock Exchange for failing to meet listing criteria.
The New York-based company's shares have been suspended from trading on the exchange effective at the market opening on April 20.
The company, which recently warned it could buckle under its $2.4 billion debt load, said the development would have no impact on its park operations or vendor relationships. [ID:nN08469338]
In a recent securities filing, Six Flags said it may have to resort to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection if talks with creditors stall. Six Flags said it hired financial and legal advisors to assist with its restructuring.
Concerns over the company's debt load, accrued during its efforts to expand globally and build new rides, have pummeled Six Flags shares in recent years. In 1999, the shares traded as high as $41.62, but the stock has been in a freefall since.
Since September the company's shares have not been able to crack through the $1.00 level. (Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing Bernard Orr)

Stock exchange, agriculture, real estate to be taxed: Tareen

ISLAMABAD: The stock exchange, and the agriculture and real estate sectors will be brought under the tax net within the next three years, Finance Adviser Shaukat Tareen said on Wednesday. Talking at a reception by the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the finance adviser said the manufacturing sector was overburdened with taxes, therefore the tax net had to be expanded to bridge the revenue-expenditure gap in the future.He said electricity tariff for industrial and commercial consumers would facilitate the sectors, assuring the industrialists that the government would try to equitably burden various segments of the society to meet the revenue requirements for national development.Tareen said the government was collecting a higher Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) on petroleum oil and lubricant (POL) products to bridge the revenue shortfall, which had occurred due to a slowing down in the manufacturing sector and in dutiable imports.The finance adviser said currently the government’s major expenditures related to defence, debt servicing and development. The government would place all the facts before a judicial commission formed by the Supreme Court to analyse POL prices, Tareen said. He said a reduction in inflation was the government’s prime target.