London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London in the United Kingdom. Fourth-largest stock exchange in the world. Founded in 1801 and its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The Exchange is part of the London Stock Exchange Group.

Activities
Primary Markets
The London Stock Exchange runs several markets for listing, giving an opportunity for different sized companies to list. International companies can list a number of products in London including shares, depositary receipts and debt, offering different and cost-effective ways to raise capital. In 2004 the Exchange opened a Hong Kong Office and has attracted more than 200 companies from the Asia-Pacific region. For the biggest companies exists the Premium Listed Main Market. This operates a Super Equivalence method where conditions of both the UK Listing Authority as well as London Stock Exchanges own criteria have to be met. The largest IPO (Initial Publical Offering) on the Exchange was completed in May 2011 by Glencore International plc. The company raised $10bn at admission, making it one of the largest IPO ever.

Secondary Markets
The securities available for trading on the London Stock Exchange are:
Ordinary Shares Exchange Traded Funds Exchange Traded Commodities Covered Warrants Structured Products Bonds Retail Bonds Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs)

Secondary Markets
There are two main markets on which companies trade on the LSE:
Main Market : The home to some of the most well-established, largest and recognised companies in the world. Over 1,300 companies from 60 different countries enjoy the balanced and globally-respected standards of regulation and corporate governance that the London Stock Exchange offers. Over the past 10 years over 366 billion has been raised through new and further issues by Main Market companies. The FTSE 100 Index (footsie) is the main share index of the 100 most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the Main Market. Alternative Investment Market (AIM) The London Stock Exchanges international market for smaller growing companies. A wide range of businesses including early stage, venture capital backed as well as more established companies join AIM seeking access to growth capital. The AIM falls within the classification of a Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) as defined under the MiFID directive in 2004, and such is a flexible market with a simpler admission process for companies wanting to be publicly listed.

Information services
The LSE supply its participants with real time prices and trading data creating the transparency and liquidity through several services. Feeds are also available through providers such as Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. Some of the products and references provided by the London Stock Exchange are:
Unavista LSEs business solution for Post-Trade Services, Data Solutions and Reconciliations. It offers customers a global hosted platform for integrating matching, validation and reconciliations. RNS Regulatory News Service is both a regulatory and financial communications channel for companies to communicate with the professional investor. Around 175,000 announcements are processed by RNS each year. Proquote the London Stock Exchanges data provider and information display system. It offers both Pre and Post trade Execution Monitoring and Analysis tools.