‘Dalal Street’ is home to the ‘Bombay Stock Exchange’, the nerve-center of India’s financial market. Kalyan Bose, head of corporate affairs at BSE, says, “When the media reports on the capital market, it is referred to as Dalal Street. The name is synonymous with Indian capital markets. The street witnessed the growth of the Indian capital market. When you write the history of the country’s stock markets, you cannot leave out the words ‘Dalal Street’. Dalal Street is not a foreign name that needs to be changed. It is an Indian name.” Such are the sentiments of people connected with the ‘Wall Street of India’, others are hell-bent in destroying this legacy.
In the mid 1850s, a group of 22 stockbrokers started business under a banyan tree opposite the Town Hall, each investing rupee 1. These stockbrokers called themselves ‘The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association’ which came to be recognized as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in 1875. It is one of the oldest stock exchanges in Asia. The Bombay Stock Exchange shifted to the ‘Broker’s Hall’ in 1899. It moved again, after the First World War, to an old building near the ‘Town hall’ in Bombay, where Horniman Circle is now situated. The current real-estate was acquired in 1928 and a modern 28 story building was constructed and occupied in 1980. This has become the permanent location of BSE and the building is called the ‘Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers’, built by Larsen & Toubro.
The Bombay Stock Exchange is the largest of 22 exchanges in India, with over 6,000 listed companies. It is also the fifth largest exchange in the world, with market capitalization of $466 billion. The Bombay Stock Exchange uses the BSE Sensex, an index of 30 large, developed BSE stocks. This index gives a measure of the overall performance of the Bombay Stock Exchange and is closely followed around the world. Bombay Stock Exchange is considered to have played a very important role in the development of the country’s capital markets. Perhaps, there would not be any leading corporate company in India which has not sourced BSE’s services in resource mobilization. Reliance Industries limited is a classic example.
Filed under: Corporate India Tagged: | Banyan Tree, Bombay Stock Exchange, Broker's Hall, BSE, Dalal Street, First World War, Horniman Circle, India's Financial Market, Indian Capital Market, Kalyan Bose, Larsen & Toubro, Phiroze Jeejeebhoy Towers, Reliance Industries limited, Stock Markets, The Native Share and Stockbrokers Association, The Wall Street of India, Town Hall, Wall Street
