Frankfurt Stock Exchange

The history of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, German Stock Exchange or the Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse (FWB) in German, dates back to the 11th century. The actual establishment of the official stock exchange, however, occurred in 1682. Since then, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange had undergone many changes and economic problems, especially during World Wars I and II. After the Second World War, in 1949, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange became the leading stock exchange in Germany. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange operates under its owner, Deutsche Börse. This company launched the Xetra trading system in 1997, which is an electronic system that handles a majority of the transactions in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the third largest stocks trade-place in the world, with a yearly total turnover of over €5 trillion. In terms of market capitalisation, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the sixth largest stock exchange in the world. As one of the world's leading international trading centres, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange includes 141 foreign participants out of the total of 300. The main trading index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is the "Deutscher Aktien IndeX" (DAX). There are a number of other indices in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange such as DAXplus, LDAX, VDAX and EuroStoxx 50.