Irish Stock Exchange

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The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) is Ireland's stock exchange, formed through the merger of the Cork and Dublin exchanges, both of which existed since at least 1793. In 1799, the Irish Parliament passed the Stock Exchange (Dublin) Act which regulated the Cork and Dublin Stock Exchanges. In 1973, the Irish exchange merged with the other British and Irish stock exchanges. From 1973 to 1995, the Irish Stock Exchange was a member of the International Stock Exchange of Great Britain and Ireland (now called the London Stock Exchange). The current independent Irish Stock Exchange was established in 1995, breaking the link with London. On 6 June 2000, the ISE closed its famous trading floor in Anglesea Street, Dublin 2, and switched to an electronic trading platform called ISE Xetra. This is owned by, and is the same trading platform used by, the Deutsche Börse Group.

Most Irish public limited companies have their primary listing on the Exchange. However it is not compulsory for them to do so (the most notable exception is NTR plc, which is unlisted and traded via a grey market). Some companies based outside of Ireland, such as Tesco also trade on the ISE (often via a secondary listing) for the convenience of their shareholders. The ISE also trades in a number of other equities, and Irish government bonds.

The published index of shares is known as the Irish Stock Exchange Quotient or ISEQ Overall Index. Other indexes of the exchange include the ITEQ Index, the ISEQ 20, the ISEQ General, ISEQ SmallCap, and ISEQ Financial.

The exchange is owned by stockbroking firms, who together with the exchanges listed companies and funds are levied for its upkeep. Traditionally each city in Ireland would have had a number of stockbroking firms, organised as two man partnerships. Competition and globalisation has led to all firms now being located in Dublin (the last regional broker was W&R Morrogh's of Cork which closed in 2001 after the largest fraud in the history of the state) and most stockbroking firms are now attached to banks or other financial service companies.

List of Member firms (April 2006) ABN AMRO BANK N.V. www.abnamro.com BCP STOCKBROKERS LIMITED www.bcp.ie BNP PARIBAS ARBITRAGE SNC www.bnpparibas.com BLOXHAM www.bloxhams.ie CAMPBELL O'CONNOR & COMPANY www.camocon.ie CREDIT SUISSE SECURITIES (EUROPE) LIMITED www.csfb.co.uk DANSKE BANK A/S www.danskebank.com DOLMEN STOCKBROKERS www.dolmensecurities.com FEXCO STOCKBROKING LIMITED www.fexcostockbroking.com GOODBODY STOCKBROKERS www.goodbody.ie J & E DAVY www.davy.ie MERRILL LYNCH INTERNATIONAL www.ml.com MERRION STOCKBROKERS LIMITED www.merrion-capital.com NCB STOCKBROKERS LIMITED www.ncbdirect.com NEONET SECURITIES AB www.neonet.biz PERSHING SECURITIES INTERNATIONAL LIMITED www.pershing.co.uk SUSQUEHANNA INTERNATIONAL SECURITIES LIMITED www.susq.com TULLET PREBON (EQUITIES) LIMITED www.cstplc.com WINTERFLOOD SECURITIES LIMITED www.wins.co.uk

In recent years the exchange has come under pressure with firms listing on the London (especially the AIM market) and NASDAQ markets. The exchange is requlated by the Financial Regulator.

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