The Australian Stock Exchange (currently the 8th biggest in the world) grew out of six bourses - Melbourne (1861), Sydney (1871), Hobart (1882), Brisbane (1884), Adelaide (1887) and Perth (1889) - which operated independently till 1937, when the Australian Associated Stock Exchanges (AASE), grouping representatives of the six bourses, was created. Over the years, the AASE established uniform lists and standardized the role of brokers and trading commission rates.

The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) was set up in 1987 and listed, as of 30th March 2007, 2,014 equities with a capitalization value of over US$1,000 billion.
The main companies listed are: BHP Biliton Ltd, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australian Bank Ltd, ANZ Banking Group Ltd, Westpac Banking Corporation, Rio Tinto Ltd, Woodside Petroleum Ltd, Telstra Ltd, Woolworths Ltd. and Macquaire Bank Ltd.
Since 2006, trading in equities, warrants, bonds, options and rights is managed by the Click-XT system, also known as the Integrated Trade System (ITS), which can carry out a number of multi-order transactions a second (>5 orders per transaction) based on precedence of entry time and price. The clearing house looks after all placing, compensation and control activities.
Short selling is only allowed for certain equities and in certain conditions.
Securities trading commissions are variable, generally around 0.1% or between 15 and 40 AUD.
The main indexes are the Standard & Poor’s ASX 500, 300 and 200 in which low liquidity equities are adjusted down or excluded.
Dividends are not usually taxed, as this is done by the listed company, whereas dividends not exempted in this way are taxed at 30%. The main brokers controlling the market are Macquarie Bank, UBS, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs JBWere, Merrill Lynch, CSFB, Deutsche Bank, ABN AMRO, CommSec and Morgan Stanley.

Exchange Centre , 20 Bridge Street, Sidney
NSW 1215, Australia
PO Box H224, Australia Square, Sidney
NSW 1215, Australia
Telephone : +61 2 9227 0000
Fax :+61 2 9227 0885
Email: info@asx.com.au