Australia Stock Exchange

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The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) is the primary stock exchange in Australia. The ASX began as separate state-based exchanges established as early as 1871. Today trading is all-electronic and the exchange is a public company, listed on the exchange itself. Australian Stock Exchange ("ASX") changed its name to Australian Securities Exchange ("ASX") on 5 December 2006.
The biggest stocks traded on the ASX, in terms of their market capitalization, include BHP Billiton, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra Corporation, the National Australia Bank and the ANZ Banking Group. The mining sector makes up a relatively high proportion of the market, and comparatively few manufacturing stocks are listed.

The major market index is the S&P/ASX 200, an index made up of the top 200 shares in the ASX. This supplanted the previously significant All Ordinaries index, which still runs parallel to the S&P ASX 200. Both are commonly quoted together. An index of only the bigger stocks is the S&P/ASX 50.

The ASX is a public company, and its own shares are traded on the ASX. However, the corporation's charter restricts maximum individual holdings to a small fraction of the company. While the ASX regulates other listed companies listed on the ASX, it cannot regulate itself, and is regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The current managing director Robert Elstone was appointed in July 2006. Prior to the merger of ASX with the Sydney Futures Exchange (SFE), Robert Elstone was the CEO of the SFE.