The bulls are partying hard not just in India but in many other countries as well. Even as the Sensex has scaled the astounding height of 26,000, benchmarks in countries including Argentina, Canada, Germany, USA, UK and Pakistan are also perched close to their life-time highs.

This surge has made the market capitalisation of all bourses swell. According to the World Federation of Exchanges, the largest stock exchange, the New York Stock Exchange, has seen its market capitalisation increase from $17 trillion in January this year to $19.1 trillion towards the end of June. That the exchange has been able to grow at such a searing pace despite a very high base is a proof of the strength in the ongoing rally. The market cap of all the American exchanges towards the end of June — both North and South American exchanges — is 22 per cent higher than last year.

This may be impressive but the exchanges in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) have managed to trump their American counterparts with 26 per cent year-on-year increase in market cap. The largest bourse in this segment, the Euronext with market cap of $3.8 trillion, recorded a strong 31 per cent growth. The overall market cap growth in Asia Pacific zone was relatively sedate at 15.9 per cent. Gains were depressed by the leader, the Tokyo stock exchange that has market cap of $4.6 trillion, growing at a slow 14.9 per cent. With the fast paced rally in Japanese markets already done with in 2013, this market has been a relative underperformer.

The Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange with market caps of around $1.5 trillion were out-performers in this category with gains of 39 per cent and 40 per cent increase in market cap.

While Indian bourses aren’t in the global league on market cap, the BSE tops the list when measured on the number of listed companies with 5,406 listed stocks towards the end of June. The TMX, the Canadian stock exchange comes next with 3,805 stocks. The NSE with 1,695 stocks features at the ninth position.

Indian investors however do not appear as enamoured by Exchange Traded Funds with less than 40 ETF listings. Exchanges in developed markets such as NYSE and Deutsche Borse have the maximum number of listed ETFs listed at 1,463 and 1,029 respectively. They are followed by Swiss Exchange and Euronext.

Indian exchanges do not fare that badly in bond listings. The National Stock Exchange has 6,191 bonds listed on it. This compares not too badly with the exchange that tops the list — Luxembourg Stock Exchange with 26,093 bond listings.

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