Paris Stock Exchange History & Trading Holidays

Paris Stock Exchange History

The Paris Stock Exchange was the major stock exchange for France from the mid-19th century through the year 2000. The exchange was originally called Paris Bourse, because all of the trading activity took place in the area of Bourse. The Paris Stock Exchange was an open outcry system until 1986. The CAC 40 is the benchmark index for the Paris Exchange.

Various Market of the Paris Stock Exchange

The Paris Stock Exchange is broken out into four sections:

Premier Marche - large companies and bond issues

Second Marche - medium-sized corporations
Nouveau - companies with small market cap
March Libre - unregulated market of issues not listed on the Premier, Second or Novueva markets

Euronext

On September 22, 2000 there was a merger of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, Brussels Stock Exchange, and Paris Bourse. The purpose of this merger was to unite a number of European exchanges to reduce the cumbersome that comes from so many markets within close proximity to each other. This formed the largest stock exchange in Europe behind the London Stock Exchange. The Euronext has two main tracking indexes: Euronext 100 and the Next 150.

Euronext merger with NYSE

The merger with the NYSE was more of a reactive move than a proactive one. The Euronext was in discussions with the Deutsche Borse (German stock market) about potential merger discussions. The aim of this potential deal was to further expand the market capitalization and integration of the European markets. Around the same time, the Nasdaq was attempting to merge with teh London Stock Exchange, which would have created the largest equities market in the world. The NYSE recognized that they needed to make a move, so the NYSE outbid the Deutsche Borse's offer to the Euronext. Deutsche Borse eventually dropped out of the race and the merger between the NYSE and Euronext was completed in April 4, 2007. This created the first global exchange.