Share Trading UK refers to the share trading activities and stock market operations that are taking place in the U.K. The London Stock Exchange or LSE principally dominates the share trading operations in the United Kingdom.
Share Trading UK deals with trading of different types of securities, for example, stocks, international equities, depository receipts and AIM securities or Alternative Investment Market securities and many other types of securities.
The U.K. share market is a fundamentally strong and well-regulated share market. The U.K. share market has become the level playing field for some of the renowned companies, which dominate the world. The U.K. stock market is also regarded as the most international stock market simply because of the number of international companies whose shares are traded in the market. The number of companies participating in the U.K. share market has crossed 3,000.
The principal business areas of share trading operations in UK include the following:
- Equity Markets
- Derivative Markets
- Share Trading Brokerage Services
The London Stock Exchange was incorporated in the year 1801. The LSE is one of the biggest, as well as the oldest stock exchanges in the world. It is basically a secondary market. A large number of UK companies as well as various international companies have their listings with the London Stock Exchange.
In March 2007, the LSE achieved the rank of the 4th largest stock exchange among all the principal stock exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalization.
The components of the London Stock Market are the following:
- Main Market
- Alternative Investments Market or AIM
- EDX London (It deals with derivatives)
The official stock market index of the London Stock exchange is known as the Footsie (FTSE). In order to measure the price movements of the shares and stocks traded on the LSE, a series of indices are used and they include the following:
- FTSE 100 Index
- FTSE 250 Index
- FTSE 350 Index
All the indices are managed by the FTSE Group.
The leading stockbrokers in the United Kingdom include the following:
- TD Waterhouse
- Etrade Financial
- Barclays Stockbrokers
- REDM Online Share Trading
- Halifax