Borsa Italiana

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The Borsa Italiana S.p. A., based in Milan, is Italy's main stock exchange. It was founded in 1997 following the privatisation of the exchange and has been operational since January 2, 1998. The Borsa Italiana's primary objective is the development of managed markets, maximising their liquidity, transparency and competitiveness and at the same time pursuing high levels of efficiency and profitability. NYSE Group and Euronext, which are merging to form NYSE Euronext, wish to acquire Borsa Italiana.^[1]

Capitalisation of the securities listed: $ 890 billion (2005)

1 Operations
2 Structure
3 Some Companies Listed on the Borsa Italiana
4 External links
5 See also
6 Notes and references

[edit] Operations

Borsa Italiana has managing responsibility for Italy's derivatives markets (IDEM and MIF) and its fixed income market (MOT). On the MOT (Electronic Government Bond and Securities Market), buy and sell contracts are traded on government securities and nonconvertible bonds; the EuroMOT is the Euro-Bond Electronic Market that trades Eurobonds, bonds from foreign issuers and asset-backed securities.

[edit] Structure

Borsa Italiana organises and manages the Italian stock market with the participation of nearly 130 domestic and international brokers who operate in Italy or from abroad through remote membership, using a completely electronic trading system for the real-time execution of trades. In addition, it performs organisational, commercial and promotional activities aimed at developing high value-added services for the financial community.

The stock market is divided into five parts. The electronic share market (MTA) trades Italian shares, convertible bonds, and warrants; the covered warrants market is an electronic share market. The STAR (Segment for High Requirement Shares) market is within the MTA and includes companies capitalized from 40 million to 100 million Euro that are already listed and traded in more traditional sectors. Nuovo Mercato is dedicated to innnovation-driven companies. Stocks, bonds, warrants, and options not admitted to the official exchange are traded on Mercato Ristretto. Premi Market is for premium contracts on stock exchange products. The after hours market enables trading of financial instruments after the daytime session closes. The borsa's main indices are the MIB and the MIBTEL, based on the prices of all listed shares, and the MIB 30 Index, a capitalization-weighted index based on a sample of the 30 most liquid and highly capitalized shares on the Italian stock market.