Back
BASICS ON GLOBAL STOCK MARKETS

There was a time in mid 90s when Indian Stock Markets remained open only for two to three hours. The working hour of everyone associated with Stock Markets was very short. Over time, the simplicity in the life of a person associated with Stock Market has vanished and the scenario has become much more complex, because the Stock Markets now remain open ‘s! Round the Clock! It is not just 9 AM to 3.30 PM IST. When the Sun appears over the eastern horizon in Japan, the world markets open and when the trailing edge of the Sun”s disk disappears below the horizon of New York, it closes. Some commodities and currency futures are traded electronically even during the thin time gap between the two events. In this age of globalization, when a miniscule country like Greece has the potential of placing the whole world on the edge, the movements in global markets are equally important to us along with the domestic markets. We start our day with bed tea with Nikkei, have breakfast with SGX and Hang Seng, spend the day with Nifty and Sensex, have evening tea with Europe closing, dinner with US opening and finally retire to bed with DOW and Nasdaq – many of us do not see the US closing and many of us wait for the closing before we sleep. So you see the Stock Markets are open round the clock!

Let us take note on the global indices – some of the issues which we notice daily but are not clear. Like, how the SGX Nifty changes at 9 PM or even at 10 PM? When does it actually close? How does the Dow Future trades even when the Spot Market is closed? Let us find out more.

US MARKETS

Indian Markets are historically closely correlated with US Markets. We started watching Europe Markets much later, after the Europe crisis, but we started tracking Dow Jones much earlier.

There are two major Stock Exchanges in USA. The NASDAQ and NYSE, both located in New York City, are the two largest stock exchanges in the world. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has a larger market cap than the NASDAQ, which is known for its large selection of technology stocks (e.g., Google and Facebook). While trading on the NASDAQ is fully automated, the NYSE still uses human specialists to monitor and occasionally carry out its electronic trading. It is cheaper for companies to enter and stay listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

Dow Jones or Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is the Index of NYSE and Nasdaq.  The “Dow” as it is often referred to, is simply an average of 30 large industrial companies.  Companies such as ExxonMobil and Microsoft, along with 28 others make up the Dow Jones Industrial Index.  This average is calculated by adding up the price of all 30 Dow stocks and dividing this number by a divisor, which is known as is the Dow divisor.  The Dow is the most commonly quoted “market” and is what most people are discussing when referring to the stock market. The average gets its name from its founders, Charles Dow a journalist and Edward Jones a statistician.  Originally the average was comprised of mostly railroad stocks.

S&P 500is anotherindex that tracks 500 large U.S. companies across a wide span of industries and sectors listed on both NYSE and Nasdaq. The stocks in S&P 500 represent roughly 70 percent of the stocks that are publicly traded. “S&P” stands for “Standards and Poor’s”, the name of a market research firm. Companies can be listed in more than one index. Some of the largest companies within the S&P 500 are also in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

NASDAQ can get a little confusing. “NASDAQ” refers to both an index and a trading exchange. The NASDAQ-100 Index includes 100 largest domestic and international non-financial securities listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market based on market capitalization. The Index reflects companies across major industry groups including computer hardware and software, telecommunications, retail/wholesale trade and biotechnology. It does not contain securities of financial companies including investment companies.

Trading Time

The NYSE market trading sessions are

Eastern Time (ET)Indian Standard Time (IST)
Market hours9:30 AM to 4:00 PM8:00 PM to 2:30 AM
After-Market hours4:00 PM to 8:00 PM2:30 AM to 6:30 AM

The NASDAQ stock market trading sessions are

Eastern Time (ET)Indian Standard Time (IST)
Pre-Market hours7:00 AM to 9:30 AM5:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Market hours9:30 AM to 4:00 PM8:00 PM to 2:30 AM
After-Market hours4:00 PM to 8:00 PM2:30 AM to 6:30 AM

The increasing popularity of electronic communication networks (ECNs) has greatly facilitated after-hours trading, which is no longer restricted only to large institutional investors but is now available to any investor. It is also known as the “after-hours market.” After-hours trading volume in specific stocks often surges upon the occurrence of market-moving events, such as earnings reports, pre-earnings announcements or M&A activity. Lower liquidity and wider bid-ask spreads are a common feature of after-hours trading. However, investors may consider this a small price to pay for the privilege of exiting a losing position before regular trading commences, or initiating a new position ahead of the crowd. After-hours trading is heaviest in the first hour or two after markets close, before tapering off sharply.

Futures Markets

We often see the Dow Future or Nasdaq Future being displayed on TV Screen even when the normal Markets are closed. We show immense interest during our Market Hours about what is Dow Future, it is up or down?

The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), established in 1848, is the world”s oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and electronic trading. On 12 July 2007, the CBOT merged with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) to form the CME Group. CBOT and three other exchanges (CME, NYMEX, and COMEX) now operate as designated contract markets (DCM) of the CME Group.

The Dow Futures starts trading on the CBOT at 7:20 AM Central Time (8:20 AM ET or 6:50 PM IST), which is one hour and ten minutes before the stock market opens. That allows trading to take place before the actual stock market opens so reporters and professionals can get an idea of sentiment. That is, if a company reports huge earnings and the Dow Futures skyrocket, the odds are good that the market itself will rise as well. The opposite is also true. If an event occurs before the stock market opens that causes Dow Futures to plummet, then there is a fairly good chance that stocks will fall once the market opens. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures both open at 8:30 AM ET (7:00 PM IST) and trade on the CME.

<span “times=”” new=”” roman”,”serif”;background:white&quot=”” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”>EUROPEAN MARKETS

The FTSE 100 Index, also called FTSE 100, is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization. It is one of the most widely used stock indices and is seen as a measure of prosperity for businesses regulated by the UK company law. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group. FTSE stands for Financial Times Stock Exchange.

Normal trading sessions on the main order book are from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM (GMT). The detailed schedule is as follows:

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)Indian Standard Time (IST)
Trade reporting7:15 AM to 7:50 AM12:45 PM to 1:20 PM
Opening auction7:50 AM  to 8:00 AM1:20 PM to 1:30 PM
Continuous trading8:00 AM to 4:30 PM1:30 PM to 10:00 PM
Closing auction4:30 PM to 4:35 PM10:00 PM to 10:05 PM
Order maintenance4:35 PM to 5:00 PM10:05 PM to 10:30 PM
Trade reporting5:00 PM to 5:15 PM10:30 PM to 10:45 PM

German Stock Index DAX 30 was formerly known as Deutscher Aktien Index 30. It consists of 30 major German companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. DAX 30 was launched on 30 December, 1987 with a base value of 1000. The electronic Xetra trading system provides the prices. It calculates the index after every one minute. Automatic Xetra trading runs from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM CET (or 1:30 PM to 10:00 PM IST) with closing auction from 5:30 PM to 5:35 PM CET (Central Europe time) (or 10:00 PM to 10:05 PM IST)

The CAC 40 is a benchmark French stock market index. The index represents a capitalization-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Euronext Paris (formerly the Paris Bourse). It is one of the main national indices of the pan-European stock exchange group Euronext alongside Brussels” <span “times=”” new=”” roman”,”serif”;color:windowtext;background:white;text-decoration:=”” none&quot=”” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”>BEL20, <span “times=”” new=”” roman”,”serif”;color:windowtext;background:white;text-decoration:=”” none&quot=”” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”>Lisbon”s <span “times=”” new=”” roman”,”serif”;color:windowtext;background:white;text-decoration:=”” none&quot=”” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”>PSI-20 and Amsterdam”s AEX. Trading hours are 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM CET (or 1:30 PM to 10:00 PM IST), Monday to Friday.

<span “times=”” new=”” roman”,”serif”&quot=”” style=”box-sizing: border-box;”>THE MOST WIDELY TRACKED GLOBAL INDEX BY INDIANS – SGX NIFTY

Since dual listing of stocks is not permitted in India, Indian Stocks could not be traded in other exchange outside the country.

However, the Index Nifty is traded on two Stock Exchanges outside India – Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) and Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Between these two, SGX Nifty is more popular and liquid. SGX Nifty is getting popular among the FIIs and the volume is increasing heavily during last 3 years, due to lower transaction cost in Singapore.

There are two kinds of contracts in SGX;

  • E – SGX QUEST (T) With Settlement in the same day, Timings – 9.00 AM – 6.15 PM SGThese two contracts enable traders all over the world to trade in SGX even when the market is not open.

Often our media does not display the SGX (T+1) contract at proper time and so we cannot not see the live SGX Nifty figure, especially on the expiry day evening.

The live SGX Nifty could be checked at: http://sgxniftylive.co.in/

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published.