Canada Stock Market

The stock market in Canada is one of the oldest and most advanced in the world. Some of the main stock exchanges of the Canada Stock Market are:

TSX is Canada's leading stock exchange and a world leader for listing mining and oil and gas companies from around the world. TSX has excellent opportunities for both junior as well as senior issuers in its bourse with a wide range of solutions for raising money. These are:

Conventional securities

Equity related products such as

Exchange traded funds
Income trusts
Investment funds

Some of the other important exchanges of TSX are:

TSX Venture Exchange – This is an exchange for emerging companies across all industry segments including a fair number of those that are considered the industries of the future.

Natural Gas Exchange – Better known as NGX, the Natural Gas Exchange was based in Calgary, Alberta and is one of the most secure and efficient markets for trading and clearing natural gas and electricity contracts.

Toronto Stock Exchange or TSX issuers raised USD 46 billion in 2005 which ranks third in terms of the value of the amount financed by members of the World Federation of Exchanges.

Montreal Stock Exchange

The Montreal Stock Exchange can trace its beginning to 1832 when the first stock transaction took place at the exchange coffee house and in 1874, the Montreal Stock Exchange was formally established. Today the Montreal Stock Exchange has grown to become the second most important stock exchange of Canada with special focus on derivative trading.

The Vancouver, Alberta and Winnipeg Stock Exchanges merged in 1999 to form the CDNX (Canadian Venture Exchange) and subsequently entered a national level agreement with all the other stock exchanges of Canada to restructure along the line of market specialization. Accordingly the Toronto Stock Exchange became the sole exchange for trading in senior equities, the Montreal Stock Exchange for trading in derivatives and the CDNX which was created through the merger of the Vancouver, Alberta and Winnipeg stock exchanges, for trade in junior equities. The secondary and primary markets in Canada are known as the senior and junior markets respectively.

Canada doesn't have a government controlled centralized regulatory mechanism for its securities trading sector as the SEC (Securities and Exchange Council) in the United States. On the contrary Canada depends on the high level of compliance and discipline followed by its securities trading sector that has developed its own market based regulation mechanism which is quite effective. Canada's securities trading sector is regulated at the provincial and territorial level by self-regulatory organizations such as the exchanges, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada and Market Regulation Services Inc, all of which play important regulatory roles. However the federal government in Canada is taking steps toward the setting up of a single securities trading regulator for the entire capital market sector of Canada and it is expected to complete the process soon.