Stock market eco-system has developed because of the existence of stock exchanges. For business expansion, these stock exchanges provide a platform to raise funds in primary market through IPO. For traders/investors, these exchanges provide an opportunity to earn money in the secondary market. NSE is the leading stock exchange in India. Let’s understand what is national stock exchange (NSE).
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SEBI has brought transparency in the Indian financial market by enforcing its bye-laws to financial intermediaries and other entities within the eco-system. In past few years, SEBI has permitted (or forced) lots of stock exchanges to exit the bourse (exchange) business by raising the eligibility-bar of a stock exchange. This step was one of the cleaning processes of the financial market in India. SEBI performs its various functions through its 20 departments.
Currently there are 6 active stock exchanges in India, viz.
- BSE Ltd.
- Calcutta Stock Exchange Ltd.
- India International Exchange (India INX)
- Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd.
- National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.
- NSE IFSC Ltd.
FundsBase is glad to provide a glimpse to NSE in this article, one of the leading stock exchanges in India.
History of National Stock Exchange
Till 1992, BSE was the most popular stock exchange in India. BSE used to function as a floor-trading exchange. In 1992 NSE was established as the first demutualized stock exchange in the country. It was also first stock exchange in India to introduce technologically advanced, screen-based trading platform (as opposed to floor-trading of BSE). This screen-based trading platform brought a revolution in bourse business in India. Soon NSE became the preferred stock exchange of traders/investors in India.
NSE is the abbreviation of National Stock Exchange Limited. It is privately owned organization. It was incorporated in 1992, recognized by SEBI as a stock exchange in 1993 and started operations in 1994.
NSE timeline journey is given at the end of this article.
⇯How NSE earns
In the stock market, an investor/trader has to pay various fee to trade/invest. You can read about these charges at different charges you pay in the stock market.
NSE is a demutualized privately held organization, thus its main purpose is to earn money. It earns from various sources viz.
- Transaction Charges
- Listing Fee
- Initial listing fee
- Annual listing fee
- Book Building Fees
- Educational workshops
- Depository and Clearing Corporation
When you trade/invest, a charge is levied by the NSE on the total turnover. This charge is called transaction charge. It is calculated as
Transaction charge = turnover charge + clearing charge
This varies broker to broker due to change in clearing charge and other reasons. Exempli Gratia, it is 0.00325% for zerodha.
When a company requires funding from public, for its expansion or other reasons, it approaches a stock exchange for listing its stock. Stock exchange charge a fee to provide its platform to those companies. This fee is divided into two parts viz.
NSE charges this one time fee from the company when they are listed. This fee is fixed for every company as 50,000.
This fee is paid annually by the companies listed on the NSE. It varies depending on company’s paid-up capital, bond and/or debenture and/or debt capital, etc.
FundsBase is providing this fee as mentioned on NSE website on 20 February 2018.
| Paid-up | Annual fee |
| Upto 50 Crore | 2,00,000 |
| Above 50 Crore and upto 100 Crore | 2,55,000 |
| Above 100 Crore and upto 200 Crore | 3,30,000 |
| Above 200 Crore and upto 300 Crore | 4,15,000 |
| Above 300 Crore and upto 400 Crore | 5,10,000 |
| Above 400 Crore and upto 500 Crore | 6,70,000 |
| Paid-up | Annual fee | Additional listing fee for every increase of 5 crore or part thereof |
| ₹ 501 crore – ₹ 1000 crore | ₹6,75,000.00 | ₹4,150.00 |
| ₹ 1001 crore – ₹ 2000 crore | ₹11,00,000.00 | ₹4,625.00 |
| Paid-up | Annual fee | Additional listing fee for every increase of 5 crore or part thereof above 1,000 |
| ₹ 2001 crore – ₹ 3000 crore | ₹11,25,000.00 | ₹5,025.00 |
| more than ₹ 3000 crore | ₹12,00,000.00 | ₹4,600.00 |
When an IPO is offered to the public, its demand is recorded to discover final stock listing price on the exchange. This process is called book building. NSE also offers this facility to companies.
NSE provides various educational courses in finance and investment through its wholly owned subsidiary i.e. NSE Academy Ltd.
NSE has its own depository (NSDL) and clearing corporation (NSCCL) which are required for demat shares holding and clearing the trades respectively. This service is provided for a fee to the users.
NSE group companies
NSE has several group companies to facilitate its exchange platform and other services. These are
- NSCCL
- NSICL
- NSETECH
- IISL
- DotEx
- NSEIT Ltd.
- NSE IFSC Ltd.
- NICCL
- NSDL
- NCDEX
- PXIL
National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited, NSCCL, a wholly owned subsidiary of NSE is responsible for clearing and settlement of all trades executed on NSE and deposit and collateral management and risk management functions.
NSE Strategic Investment Corporation Limited (NSICL), a subsidiary of NSE, was incorporated to, inter alia, make or hold all strategic investments in the equity shares and/or other securities of various companies, including NSE group companies.
NSE Infotech Services Limited (NSETECH) is a wholly owned subsidiary incorporated to cater to the needs of NSE and all its group companies exclusively.
India Index Services & Products Limited (IISL), a subsidiary of NSE Strategic Investment Corporation Limited was set up in May 1998 to provide a variety of indices and index-related services and products for the Indian capital markets.
DotEx International Ltd. is a 100% subsidiary of NSE. DotEx operates NSE data feed business, which distributes real-time and proprietary market information to global data vendors, as well as to financial institutions and individual investors. DotEx also offers NEAT-on-Web (NOW), a trading software for web-based and mobile trading.
NSEIT is a 100% subsidiary of National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE). NSEIT Limited offers technology consultancy and development services for the financial services industry, primarily for Indian markets.
NSE IFSC Limited (NSE IFSC) is a fully owned subsidiary company of National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and applied to the SEBI for in-principle approval to establish an international exchange in Gujarat International Finance Tech City – International Financial Service Centre.
NSE IFSC Clearing Corporation Limited (NICCL) is a fully owned subsidiary of National Securities Clearing Corporation Limited (NSCCL). NICCL has received recognition as a Clearing Corporation under Regulation 4 of Securities Contracts (Regulation) (Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations) Regulations, 2012 and Securities and Exchange Board of India (International Financial Services Centres) Guidelines, 2015.
NICCL has commenced its operations since June 05, 2017. NICCL currently acts as a clearing corporation for all the trades executed on NSE IFSC Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of National Stock Exchange of India (NSEIL).
NSDL is a depository for securities listed on Indian exchanges that are held and settled in dematerialized form. The enactment of Depositories Act in August 1996 paved the way for the establishment of NSDL, the first depository in India. NSE joined hands with the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and the Unit Trust of India (UTI) to set up NSDL, the first depository in India.
NCDEX is a professionally-managed online commodity exchange, set up through collaboration with the Life Insurance Corporation of India, the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and ten other Indian and foreign partners.
NCDEX offers to trade in agricultural commodities, bullion commodities and metals.
Power Exchange India Limited (PXIL) is India’s first institutionally promoted Power Exchange which began operations in 2008.
PXIL provides an electronic trading platform for India-focused electricity futures. Participants in PXIL include electricity traders, inter-state generating stations, power distribution licensees and independent power producers.
NSE Index
An exchange’s index is seen as one of the financial barometers of a country. NSE’s main index is Nifty 50. This index constitutes 50 stocks from 12 sectors to represent the volatility of NSE exchange. NIFTY 50 is owned and managed by India Index Services and Products Ltd. (IISL). IISL is India’s specialized company focused on the index as a core product.
Companies in Nifty 50 as on 20 February 2018 are given in below table.
| Company Name | Industry | Symbol | ISIN Code |
| Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. | SERVICES | ADANIPORTS | INE742F01042 |
| Ambuja Cements Ltd. | CEMENT & CEMENT PRODUCTS | AMBUJACEM | INE079A01024 |
| Asian Paints Ltd. | CONSUMER GOODS | ASIANPAINT | INE021A01026 |
| Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. | PHARMA | AUROPHARMA | INE406A01037 |
| Axis Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | AXISBANK | INE238A01034 |
| Bajaj Auto Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | BAJAJ-AUTO | INE917I01010 |
| Bajaj Finance Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | BAJFINANCE | INE296A01024 |
| Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. | ENERGY | BPCL | INE029A01011 |
| Bharti Airtel Ltd. | TELECOM | BHARTIARTL | INE397D01024 |
| Bharti Infratel Ltd. | TELECOM | INFRATEL | INE121J01017 |
| Bosch Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | BOSCHLTD | INE323A01026 |
| Cipla Ltd. | PHARMA | CIPLA | INE059A01026 |
| Coal India Ltd. | METALS | COALINDIA | INE522F01014 |
| Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. | PHARMA | DRREDDY | INE089A01023 |
| Eicher Motors Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | EICHERMOT | INE066A01013 |
| GAIL (India) Ltd. | ENERGY | GAIL | INE129A01019 |
| HCL Technologies Ltd. | IT | HCLTECH | INE860A01027 |
| HDFC Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | HDFCBANK | INE040A01026 |
| Hero MotoCorp Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | HEROMOTOCO | INE158A01026 |
| Hindalco Industries Ltd. | METALS | HINDALCO | INE038A01020 |
| Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. | ENERGY | HINDPETRO | INE094A01015 |
| Hindustan Unilever Ltd. | CONSUMER GOODS | HINDUNILVR | INE030A01027 |
| Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | HDFC | INE001A01036 |
| I T C Ltd. | CONSUMER GOODS | ITC | INE154A01025 |
| ICICI Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | ICICIBANK | INE090A01021 |
| Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | IBULHSGFIN | INE148I01020 |
| Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. | ENERGY | IOC | INE242A01010 |
| IndusInd Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | INDUSINDBK | INE095A01012 |
| Infosys Ltd. | IT | INFY | INE009A01021 |
| Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | KOTAKBANK | INE237A01028 |
| Larsen & Toubro Ltd. | CONSTRUCTION | LT | INE018A01030 |
| Lupin Ltd. | PHARMA | LUPIN | INE326A01037 |
| Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | M&M | INE101A01026 |
| Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | MARUTI | INE585B01010 |
| NTPC Ltd. | ENERGY | NTPC | INE733E01010 |
| Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. | ENERGY | ONGC | INE213A01029 |
| Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. | ENERGY | POWERGRID | INE752E01010 |
| Reliance Industries Ltd. | ENERGY | RELIANCE | INE002A01018 |
| State Bank of India | FINANCIAL SERVICES | SBIN | INE062A01020 |
| Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. | PHARMA | SUNPHARMA | INE044A01036 |
| Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. | IT | TCS | INE467B01029 |
| Tata Motors Ltd. | AUTOMOBILE | TATAMOTORS | INE155A01022 |
| Tata Steel Ltd. | METALS | TATASTEEL | INE081A01012 |
| Tech Mahindra Ltd. | IT | TECHM | INE669C01036 |
| UPL Ltd. | FERTILISERS & PESTICIDES | UPL | INE628A01036 |
| UltraTech Cement Ltd. | CEMENT & CEMENT PRODUCTS | ULTRACEMCO | INE481G01011 |
| Vedanta Ltd. | METALS | VEDL | INE205A01025 |
| Wipro Ltd. | IT | WIPRO | INE075A01022 |
| Yes Bank Ltd. | FINANCIAL SERVICES | YESBANK | INE528G01027 |
| Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. | MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT | ZEEL | INE256A01028 |
NSE trade timings
For normal trading, NSE exchange opens at 09:15 and closes at 15:30 on weekdays. There is a pre-market session of 15 minutes from 09:00 to 09:15. Read more on the pre-market session.
NSE is closed on weekends and on exchange’s officially announced holidays for the calendar year. To know if NSE is open today see Stock Market Holiday for 2021.
NSE Address
NSE – Corporate Office
National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.,
Exchange Plaza, C-1, Block G,
Bandra Kurla Complex,
Bandra (E)
Mumbai – 400 051
NSE contact info
Tel No: (022) 26598100 – 8114
Fax No: (022) 26598120
Investor Grievance Cell Support 1800 22 0058 (Toll-Free)
[Timings: 09:30 AM to 05:45 PM (Monday to Friday)]
Investor Grievance Cell 022 26598191 [email protected]
