London Stock Exchange

About London Stock Exchange

Stock exchange in the City of London

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a global stock exchange based in Paternoster Square in the City of London beside St Paul's Cathedral. Founded in 1801, with roots in the stockbrokers who gathered at Jonathan's Coffee House from 1698, it is one of the world's oldest continuously operating stock exchanges. As of mid-2025 the total market capitalisation of all listed instruments was approximately US$5.9 trillion, and since 2007 it has been operated by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), itself a constituent of the FTSE 100 and formed by the merger of the London exchange with the Milan stock exchange. The exchange hosts over 1,900 companies from more than 60 countries on its Main Market for established global companies and the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) for smaller, high-growth firms, and is the primary venue for Global Depositary Receipts, a gateway for firms from emerging markets, particularly India, China and the Middle East, to international capital; it is also a global centre for the natural resources sector, with the world's largest concentration of mining capital at around US$600 billion. It regained its position as Europe's largest stock market by value in 2024 and 2025, and its flagship FTSE 100 index passed the 10,000-point milestone for the first time in early 2026. The exchange left its brutalist tower on Old Broad Street for its modern building in Paternoster Square in 2004; the building is offices and not open to the public, but the paved square with its memorial column and passage to the cathedral precinct is one of the City's handsomest modern spaces.

Where:

London, United Kingdom