BSE

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) traces its origins to 1875, when a group of stockbrokers formed the Native Share & Stock Brokers' Association under a banyan tree on Dalal Street, Mumbai. That makes it Asia's oldest stock exchange. Today it is a fully electronic, SEBI-regulated market and one of the world's largest exchanges by number of listed companies.

What it does

The BSE is a marketplace where shares, bonds, derivatives and mutual fund units are bought and sold. Its best-known product is the Sensex, a benchmark index of 30 large, financially sound companies across sectors. When you hear that 'the Sensex rose 200 points', it refers to the weighted price movement of these 30 stocks on the BSE.

The exchange runs one of the fastest trading systems in the world and settles trades on a T+1 basis, meaning shares and money change hands one working day after the trade.

In India

Most retail investors interact with the BSE through a broker app and a demat account, often without noticing whether their order routes to the BSE or its larger rival, the NSE. The two exchanges list many of the same companies, and prices stay closely aligned through arbitrage.

The BSE also runs BSE SME and BSE StAR MF, a platform that processes a huge volume of mutual fund SIP transactions. Notably, BSE Ltd is itself a listed company whose shares trade on the NSE.

Why it matters

For an ordinary Indian saver, the BSE is the plumbing that lets you own a slice of companies like Reliance, TCS or HDFC Bank. The Sensex acts as a national mood indicator for the economy and a benchmark against which index funds and ETFs are measured.

A practical tip: don't obsess over which exchange your trade hits. Focus instead on liquidity (high-volume stocks have tighter buy-sell spreads) and on costs like brokerage and STT. The exchange is just the venue; your returns come from what you buy and how long you hold it.