The world lists in New York
America is home to many of the world’s biggest companies. However, as mentioned above, NYSE Euronext has a truly global reach.
Leading business from Asia, Latin America and Europe choose the exchange for their primary or secondary listings.
And this includes many of the UK’s largest blue chip businesses.
The top five UK companies listed on NYSE in terms of market capitalisation are: miner BHP Billiton, which has a market cap of $264.45bn; Royal Dutch Shell at $215.00bn; HSBC at $199.19bn; BP at $145.80bn; and Rio Tinto at $145.07bn.
Most of these companies, leaders in their fields, are well known to UK investors.
However, while the names of some of the biggest US companies – Exxon Mobil, Walmart, Chevron and General Electric – may be familiar, other such as financial services giant Berkshire Hathaway are perhaps less well known outside the US.
Other large US-based NYSE listings include pharmaceuticals company Johnson & Johnson, Bank of America, McDonald’s and investment bank JPMorgan Chase.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies that can be traded on the exchange and are currently being tipped by analysts include fairly recent entrant to the market China Ming Yang Wind Power Group, internet content and marketing firm Bitauto Hldg Ltd and E Commerce China Dangdang Inc, which has been dubbed the Chinese Amazon.
Other non US-based companies listed on NYSE include car manufacturer Toyota, pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and the UK’s Prudential.
You can even invest in NYSE Euronext itself, which is listed in both New York and Paris.
While technology giants such as Microsoft and Apple are listed on the NASDAQ exchange, rather than NYSE, there are lots of tech firms, big and small, on the main index.
Christiaan Brakman at NYSE Euronext said: “There is no longer such a clear cut difference between the companies listing on NASDAQ and NYSE, with huge technology players such as IBM listed on NYSE, as well as many smaller technology companies.”
Next week: the third part of our series on global exchanges will continue with a look at Canada’s largest exchange, the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), where more mining and oil and gas companies are listed than on any other exchange in the world.