Taking a Look at the Canadian Stock Market
Canadian Exchanges (a little history)
The Montreal Stock Exchange
The Montreal Stock Exchange was the first Canadian stock market. It received its charter in 1874 and remained the largest exchange in Canada until after World War I. By 1910, more than 2.1 million shares were being traded annually. The Montreal Stock Exchange, like the U.S. Stock exchanges felt the effects of the great depression. Gradually, though, they were able to pull out of the market crash of 1929, growing slowly. Their next large decline came in October, 1987 when another stock market panic occurred. In 1974, the Montreal Stock Exchange merged with the Canadian Stock market Exchange, earlier known as the Montreal Curb Market.
The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX)
Another exchange on the Canadian Stock Market is The Toronto Exchange (TSE) which was formed in 1852 It was formerly the Association of Brokers, a group of Toronto businessmen. In 1997 the Toronto Exchange closed its trading floor to become the second largest stock exchange to convert to an electronic trading environment.
The Toronto Stock Exchange is now the largest stock exchange in Canada. It lists more than 1,300 companies that are being traded electronically. The Toronto Stock Exchange lists almost half of the global public energy companies, over half of public mining companies, and ranks #2 in the world in number of technology companies. In the last year, the owner and operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange has been making appearances in the United States, raising awareness of their stock exchange and noting the reasons more and more US companies are listing in their market. Several US companies already listed with the Toronto Stock Exchange talked about the impact those listings have had on their profit margin. More oil and gas companies are listed on the TSX than any other stock exchange in the world. By 2007, there were over 10 billion shares of gas and oil stocks traded in the TSX.
Sector indices in the Toronto Stock Exchange list energy markets, information technology, financial services, industrials, health care industries, gold, mining and real estate, among many others. Trading hours for the Toronto Stock Exchange is 9:30am to 4:00pm Monday through Friday. Settlement for any trades occurs on the third day after purchase. Also, there is an after-market session from 4:15pm to 5:00pm ET Monday through Friday. Canada, the United States and European companies are listed on the TSX.
The Canadian stock market continues to grow. As of 2007, there were nearly 4,000 companies listed on the TSX with combined capital of $2.2 trillion dollars. The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada (CAD). Their symbol is the $ or C$. Their central bank is the Bank of Canada. The slang for the American dollar, of course, is the buck. The Canadian dollar was first called “the loonie,” because of the picture of a common loon bird on the back of the coins. Later, when the two dollar coin was introduced, it was called the “toonie” in slang terms. The Canadian Stock market offers another investment option for consideration.
Tags: Stock Market