Stock market
Also called: share market, equity market
The system of exchanges, brokers and record-keepers through which people buy and sell shares in companies.
The stock market is not one place but a network: stock exchanges that match orders, brokers who send orders on behalf of investors, depositories that record who owns what, and a regulator that sets the rules. In India the main exchanges are NSE and BSE, and the regulator is SEBI.
It does two jobs. Companies use it to raise money by selling shares (the primary market), and investors use it to buy and sell existing shares with each other (the secondary market).
Example
When a news reader says "the market rose today", they usually mean that a stock market index such as the Nifty 50 or Sensex rose, summarising the prices of many large companies.
Learn more in these lessons
- What is the stock market?What is the stock market and how does it work?
- How stock exchanges workHow does a stock exchange match buyers and sellers?
Related terms
Spotted a mistake or something unclear? Report it by email. Here is how corrections work.