AUSTRALIAN STOCK MARKET

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is the primary stock exchange in Australia. The ASX began as separate state-based exchanges established as early as 1861. Today trading is all-electronic and the exchange is a public company, listed on the exchange itself.

The Australian Securities Exchange as it is now known resulted from the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in December 2006.

The biggest stocks traded on the ASX, in terms of their market capitalisation, include BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra Corporation, Rio Tinto, National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. As at 31-Dec-2006 the three largest sectors by market cap were financial services (34%), commodities (20%) and listed property trusts (10%).

The major market index is the S&P/ASX 200, an index made up of the top 200 shares in the ASX. This supplanted the previously significant All Ordinaries index, which still runs parallel to the S&P ASX 200. Both are commonly quoted together. Other indices for the bigger stocks are the S&P/ASX 100 and S&P/ASX 50.

The ASX is a public company, and its own shares are traded on the ASX. However, the corporation's charter restricts maximum individual holdings to a small fraction of the company.

While the ASX regulates other listed companies listed on the ASX, it cannot regulate itself, and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The current managing director Robert Elstone was appointed in July 2006. Prior to the merger of ASX with the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE), Robert Elstone was the CEO of the SFE.

MAKET DETAILS:

ASX has a pre-market session from 07:00am to 10:00 am AEST and a normal trading session from 10:00am to 04:00pm AEST.

The market opens alphabetically in single price auctions, phased over the first ten minutes, with a small random time built in to prevent exact prediction of the first trades. There is also a single-price auction between 4:10pm and 4:12pm to set the daily closing prices. As of 30 March 2007, 2014 stocks were listed on the ASX with a total market capitalisation of A$1.39 trillion (US$1.098 trillion). At the end of 2004 it was the 8th largest world equity market (on free float basis), comprising around 2.2% of the MSCI World index. Market turnover during 2004 was $A779bn.

Brokers that dominate market share in Australia (in decreasing order) include Macquarie Bank, Goldman Sachs JBWere, UBS, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO, Comm Sec and Morgan Stanley. Retail investors account for around 20% of market turnover. Market ownership is broken down as 30% institutional, 40% foreign, 30% retail.

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Real time indices

Index name		ASX code	Last	Mvmt	Close
	S&P/ASX 20	XTL	2,761.6	22.0	2,761.6
	S&P/ASX 50	XFL	4,569.7	41.1	4,569.7
	S&P/ASX 100	XTO	3,740.6	39.0	3,740.6
	S&P/ASX 200	XJO	4,570.8	48.6	4,570.8
	S&P/ASX 300	XKO	4,571.4	47.9	4,571.4
	S&P/ASX MIDCAP 50	XMD	4,231.7	88.1	4,231.7
	S&P/ASX SMALL ORDINARIES	XSO	2,495.7	27.3	2,495.7
	ALL ORDINARIES	XAO	4,573.5	46.4	4,573.5
	S&P/ASX All Australian 50	XAF	4,555.7	41.3	4,555.7
	S&P/ASX All Australian 200	XAT	4,572.8	48.2	4,572.8
	S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary (Sector)	XDJ	1,541.4	28.8	1,541.4
	S&P/ASX 200 Energy (Sector)	XEJ	16,196.2	275.7	16,196.2
	S&P/ASX 200 Financials (Sector)	XFJ	4,560.2	47.1	4,560.2
	S&P/ASX 200 Financial-x-A-REIT (Sector)	XXJ	5,280.8	39.3	5,280.8
	S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold (Sub Industry)	XGD	5,448.2	-99.0	5,448.2
	S&P/ASX 200 Health Care (Sector)	XHJ	8,762.1	33.6	8,762.1
	S&P/ASX 200 Industrials (Sector)	XNJ	3,782.4	59.5	3,782.4
	S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology (Sector)	XIJ	628.7	16.6	628.7
	S&P/ASX 200 Materials (Sector)	XMJ	11,384.0	108.4	11,384.0
	S&P/ASX 300 Metals and Mining (Industry)	XMM	4,031.3	33.0	4,031.3
	S&P/ASX200 A-REIT (Sector)	XPJ	891.8	23.2	891.8
	S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples (Sector)	XSJ	7,243.3	12.7	7,243.3
	S&P/ASX 200 Telecommunication Services (Sector)	XTJ	1,138.7	19.5	1,138.7
	S&P/ASX 200 Utilities (Sector)	XUJ	4,028.2	19.0	4,028.2