• The last two decades witnessed opening up of stock exchanges in several countries. Several countries opened their stock markets for foreign institutional investors. In Asia, countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and Taiwan experienced the most vibrant growth after opening their markets to foreign investors.
    • Stock Exchanges can be categorized as Public, Private and bankers bourses. Trading procedures in different stock markets vary because of diverse operational set-up and legal procedures. In some stock markets, transactions are to be settled essentially in cash. However, some stock exchanges such as London, Paris and Rio de Janeiro follow forward settlements.
    • The microstructure layer of the equity markets consists of identification of trading process. Good information system and transparency all an important issue that decides the popularity of any security market.
    •  Stock indices are the convenient indicators to measure the pulse of secondary market. An ideal stock index should represent the changes in the overall stock price and it should indicate the price changes of a typical share. A stock index is generally based on a sample of stock. For example, BSE consists of 30 stocks.