Business Photo Slideshows

Kathmandu

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Nepal Stock Exchange opened in 1994. Listed companies: 134. Total market capitalization: $2.8 billion. 2006 trade volume: $46.8 million. Nepal Stock Exchange index (Nepse): 6-month change +39.8%; 5-year change +215.6%. This open-outcry market added its first electronic trading system in August. Officials hope that digital trading will enable this tiny market to build more local capital.

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London

Photo by Robert Polidori

The London Stock Exchange opened in 1801. Listed companies: 3,301. Total market capitalization: $3.9 trillion. 2006 trade volume: $7.6 trillion. FTSE 100 index: 6-month change –2.9%; 5-year change +41.7%. The spheres in this kinetic sculpture, which was installed to inaugurate the London Stock Exchange’s new building in Paternoster Square in 2004, move throughout the day to represent the market’s oscillation.

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Tokyo

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Tokyo Stock Exchange opened in 1878. Listed companies: 2,422. Total market capitalization: $4.7 trillion. 2006 trade volume: $5.8 trillion. Nikkei 225 stock average: 6-month change –10.6%; 5-year change +64.7%. It has an exhibition hall, a media room, and (pictured here) a mission-control-like nerve center that houses the servers of the second-largest market (by capitalization) in the world.

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Kuwait

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Kuwait Stock Exchange opened in 1963. Listed companies: 190. Total market capitalization: $106 billion. 2006 trade volume: $59.6 billion. Kuwait Stock Exchange index: 6-month change +29.4%; 5-year change +486.5%. The exchange—the gulf region’s second largest, behind Saudi Arabia’s—does not allow women on the main floor; they’re required to make their investments in the ladies trading hall nearby.

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Nairobi

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Nairobi Stock Exchange opened in 1954. Listed companies: 58. Total market capitalization: $10.7 billion. 2006 trade volume: $2.1 billion. Nairobi Stock Exchange 20-share index: 6-month change –2.9%; 5-year change +399.9%. Kenya was moved by the recent market crunch, dipping 4 percent in August. But that didn’t sap the momentum its market had gained since May 2006, when the exchange hosted its first major I.P.O.

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Tehran

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Tehran Stock Exchange opened in 1967. Listed companies: 332. Total market capitalization: $31.9 billion. 2006 trade volume: $4.9 billion. Tehran Stock Exchange price index (Tepix): 6-month change –4%; 5-year change +158.3%. The exchange lost 24 percent of its value in 2005, the year Mahmoud Ahmadinejad became president. Though it has since bounced back, it has never regained its 2004 peak.

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New York

Photo by Robert Polidori

The New York Stock Exchange opened in 1792. Listed companies: 3,617. Total market capitalization: $16.4 trillion. 2006 trade volume: $21.8 trillion. Dow Jones industrial average: 6-month change +5.8%; 5-year change +50.8%. To expand its global reach, the world’s largest exchange became the first trans-Atlantic exchange this year after a merger with Euronext, which operates markets in five European Union nations.

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Hong Kong

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Hong Kong Stock Exchange opened in 1914. Listed companies: 1,206. Total market capitalization: $2.2 trillion. 2006 trade volume: $832 billion. Hang Seng index: 6-month change +10.7%; 5-year change +123.7%. As the favored exchange for China’s rapidly expanding industries, Hong Kong trails only London in new I.P.O.’s, raising nearly $43 billion in 2006.

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Chicago

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange opened in 1898. Number of products: 400. Value of contracts traded in 2006: $837 trillion. Daily volume of contracts traded: 15.5 million. The "Merc" was established in order to help farmers in need of financing secure prices for their future production of grain and other commodities. (Its original name was the Chicago Butter and Egg Board.)

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São Paulo

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Brazilian Merchantile & Futures Exchange opened in 1986. Number of products: 39. Value of 2006 contracts: $10.6 trillion. Average daily trade volume: $2 million. Greenhouse gases are bad news in the rest of the world, but they could be a moneymaker for the Brazilian Mercantile & Futures Exchange, which in April began trading on the future production of ethanol.

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Buenos Aires

Photo by Robert Polidori

The Liniers Market opened in 1901. Capacity: 35,000 cattle. Daily volume: $8.5 million. Long before the world’s first stock exchange began trading, sellers brought their goods to markets to haggle with buyers for a fair price. That tradition continues in many countries. The planet’s largest cattle auction takes place in Buenos Aires where ranchers sell their steers directly to supermarkets and slaughterhouses.

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