Borsa Italiana

The Borsa Italiana S.p.A., based in Milan, is Italy's main stock exchange. It was privatized in 1997 and acquired by the London Stock Exchange in 2007. In 2005, the companies listed on the Borsa were worth US$890 billion. Borsa Italiana has managing responsibility for Italy's derivatives markets (IDEM and MIF) and its fixed income market (MOT). On the MOT (Electronic Government Bond and Securities Market), buy and sell contracts are traded on government securities and nonconvertible bonds; the EuroMOT is the Euro-Bond Electronic Market that trades Eurobonds, bonds from foreign issuers and asset-backed securities. The exchange has pre-market sessions from 08:00am to 09:05am, normal trading sessions from 09:05am to 05:35pm and post-market sessions from 06:00pm to 08:30pm on all days of the week except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays declared by the Exchange in advance.Borsa Italiana organizes and manages the Italian stock market with the participation of nearly 130 domestic and international brokers who operate in Italy or from abroad through remote membership, using a completely electronic trading system for the real-time execution of trades. In addition, it performs organizational, commercial and promotional activities aimed at developing high value-added services for the financial community. The stock market is divided into five parts. The electronic share market (MTA) trades Italian shares, convertible bonds, and warrants; the covered warrants market is an electronic share market. The STAR (Segment for High Requirement Shares) market is within the MTA and includes companies capitalized from 40 million to 100 million Euro that are already listed and traded in more traditional sectors. Nuovo Mercato is dedicated to innovation-driven companies. Stocks, bonds, warrants, and options not admitted to the official exchange are traded on Mercato Ristretto. Premi Market is for premium contracts on stock exchange products. The after hours market enables trading of financial instruments after the daytime session closes. The borsa's main indices are:

• the S&P/MIB, a capitalization-weighted index of 40 of the biggest companies chosen to represent 10 economic sectors
• The MIBTEL, which covers all Italian shares (and certain foreign ones) listed on the MTA and on the MTAX market.

Other indices include the MIDEX, ALL STARS and the now deprecated MIB30.