The fist six months of 2010 have been rough on the world's stock exchanges, according to a report by the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE). Indexes around the world lost an average of 11.5% of their value over the period.
Not all markets lost money, however. Among those showing gains in the first half of 2010, most were from emerging economies. In addition, several European exchanges in the NASDAQ OMX family, notably Copenhagen, Iceland and Stockholm, rallied.
A new order also emerged among the world's largest options exchanges. The Chicago Board Options Exchange replaced the International Securities Exchange as the leader in individual stock options, compared to the first half of 2009. In stock index options, the National Stock Exchange of India took second place following the Korea Exchange, which had a 50% increase in volumes compared to the first half of 2009.
For the full report from the WFE, see http://www.world-exchanges.org/statistics.