In 2025, stock markets in the United States accounted for roughly ** percent of world stocks. The next largest country by stock market share was China, followed by the European Union as a whole. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the NASDAQ are the largest stock exchange operators worldwide. What is a stock exchange? The first modern publicly traded company was the Dutch East Industry Company, which sold shares to the general public to fund expeditions to Asia. Since then, groups of companies have formed exchanges in which brokers and dealers can come together and make transactions in one space. Stock market indices group companies trading on a given exchange, giving an idea of how they evolve in real time. Appeal of stock ownership Over half of adults in the United States are investing money in the stock market. Stocks are an attractive investment because the possible return is higher than offered by other financial instruments.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is the largest stock exchange in the world, with an equity market capitalization of almost ** trillion U.S. dollars as of November 2025. The following largest three exchanges were the NASDAQ, PINK Exchange, and the Frankfurt Exchange. What is a stock exchange? A stock exchange is a marketplace where stockbrokers, traders, buyers, and sellers can trade in equities products. The largest exchanges have thousands of listed companies. These companies sell shares of their business, giving the general public the opportunity to invest in them. The oldest stock exchange worldwide is the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, founded in the late sixteenth century. Other functions of a stock exchange Since these are publicly traded companies, every firm listed on a stock exchange has had an initial public offering (IPO). The largest IPOs can raise billions of dollars in equity for the firm involved. Related to stock exchanges are derivatives exchanges, where stock options, futures contracts, and other derivatives can be traded.

The average for 2022 based on 75 countries was 1225.97 billion U.S. dollars. The highest value was in the USA: 40297.98 billion U.S. dollars and the lowest value was in Bermuda: 0.21 billion U.S. dollars. The indicator is available from 1975 to 2024. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

The value of global domestic equity market increased from ***** trillion U.S. dollars in 2013 to ****** trillion U.S. dollars in 2024. The United States was by far the leading country with the largest share of total world stocks as of 2024. Global market capitalization in different regions The market capitalization of domestic companies listed varied across different regions of the world. As of Decmber 2024, the Americas region had the largest domestic equity market, totaling ** trillion U.S. dollars. This region is home to the NYSE and Nasdaq, which are the two largest stock exchange operators in the world. The market capitalization of these two exchanges alone exceeded ** billion U.S. dollars as of January 2025, larger than the total market capitalization in the Asia-Pacific, and in the EMEA regions in the same period. Largest Stock Exchanges in Latin America As of December 2024, the B3 (Brasil Bolsa Balcao) was the biggest stock exchange in Latin America in terms of market capitalization and the second-largest in terms of number of listed companies. Following the B3 were the Mexican Stock Exchange and the Santiago Stock Exchange in Chile. The most valuable company in Latin America is listed on the Mexican Stock Exchange: Fomento Económico Mexicano, a multinational beverage and retail company headquartered in Monterrey, had a market cap of *** billion U.S. dollars as of March 2025.

Context

Stock Exchange is a market that allows you to buy and sell securities including shares of stock, bonds, and other financial instruments in a public venue. Stock markets enable companies to be traded publicly and raise capital. Stock markets promote investment. The raising of capital allows companies to grow their businesses, expand operations and create jobs in the economy. This investment is a key driver for economic trade, growth, and prosperity.

Content

This dataset consists of 15 years of data of some of the world's most-followed stock indices from various developed and emerging markets. The data includes the opening, closing, high, low, adjusted close and total volume of transactions that occurred on a given day.

Inspiration

People who invest in stock must be familiar with the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Shanghai stock exchange as a few biggest exchanges in the list of largest stock exchanges in the world. But there are some other large stock exchanges that are tracked on a daily basis by traders and investors to gauge the global market sentiment. During the past 15 years, a few of these markets have also outperformed their global peers in terms of the total return delivered.

About:

This dataset encompasses the historical data of major stock indices from around the world, sourced directly from Yahoo Finance. With data reaching back to the early 1920s (where available), it serves as an invaluable repository for academic researchers, financial analysts, and market enthusiasts. Users can delve into trends across decades, evaluate historical market behaviors, or even design and validate predictive financial models.

Photo by Tötös Ádám on Unsplash

Info on CSVs:

1. all_indices_data.csv:

   • Description: A consolidated dataset merging all the stock indices from Yahoo Finance.
   • Columns:
     • date: The date of the data point (formatted as YYYY-MM-DD).
     • open: The opening value of the index on that date.
     • high: The highest value of the index during the trading session.
     • low: The lowest value of the index during the trading session.
     • close: The closing value of the index.
     • volume: The trading volume of the index on that date.
     • ticker: The ticker symbol of the stock index.

2. individual_indices_data/[SYMBOL]_data.csv:

   • Description: Individual datasets for each stock index, where [SYMBOL] denotes the ticker symbol of the respective stock index. Each dataset is curated from Yahoo Finance's historical data archives.
   • Columns:
     • date: The date of the data point (formatted as YYYY-MM-DD).
     • open: The opening value of the index on that date.
     • high: The highest value of the index during the trading session.
     • low: The lowest value of the index during the trading session.
     • close: The closing value of the index.
     • volume: The trading volume of the index on that date.

United Kingdom's main stock market index, the GB100, fell to 9690 points on December 2, 2025, losing 0.13% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has declined 0.12%, though it remains 15.91% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from United Kingdom. United Kingdom Stock Market Index (GB100) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

While the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic caused all major stock market indices to fall sharply in March 2020, both the extent of the decline at this time, and the shape of the subsequent recovery, have varied greatly. For example, on March 15, 2020, major European markets and traditional stocks in the United States had shed around ** percent of their value compared to January *, 2020. However, Asian markets and the NASDAQ Composite Index only shed around ** to ** percent of their value. A similar story can be seen with the post-coronavirus recovery. As of November 14, 2021 the NASDAQ composite index value was around ** percent higher than in January 2020, while most other markets were only between ** and ** percent higher. Why did the NASDAQ recover the quickest? Based in New York City, the NASDAQ is famously considered a proxy for the technology industry as many of the world’s largest technology industries choose to list there. And it just so happens that technology was the sector to perform the best during the coronavirus pandemic. Accordingly, many of the largest companies who benefitted the most from the pandemic such as Amazon, PayPal and Netflix, are listed on the NADSAQ, helping it to recover the fastest of the major stock exchanges worldwide. Which markets suffered the most? The energy sector was the worst hit by the global COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, oil companies share prices suffered large declines over 2020 as demand for oil plummeted while workers found themselves no longer needing to commute, and the tourism industry ground to a halt. In addition, overall share prices in two major stock exchanges – the London Stock Exchange (as represented by the FTSE 100 index) and Hong Kong (as represented by the Hang Seng index) – have notably recovered slower than other major exchanges. However, in both these, the underlying issue behind the slower recovery likely has more to do with political events unrelated to the coronavirus than it does with the pandemic – namely Brexit and general political unrest, respectively.

The value of the DJIA index amounted to ****** at the end of June 2025, up from ********* at the end of March 2020. Global panic about the coronavirus epidemic caused the drop in March 2020, which was the worst drop since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average index – additional information The Dow Jones Industrial Average index is a price-weighted average of 30 of the largest American publicly traded companies on New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, and includes companies like Goldman Sachs, IBM and Walt Disney. This index is considered to be a barometer of the state of the American economy. DJIA index was created in 1986 by Charles Dow. Along with the NASDAQ 100 and S&P 500 indices, it is amongst the most well-known and used stock indexes in the world. The year that the 2018 financial crisis unfolded was one of the worst years of the Dow. It was also in 2008 that some of the largest ever recorded losses of the Dow Jones Index based on single-day points were registered. On September 29, 2008, for instance, the Dow had a loss of ****** points, one of the largest single-day losses of all times. The best years in the history of the index still are 1915, when the index value increased by ***** percent in one year, and 1933, year when the index registered a growth of ***** percent.

Graph and download economic data for Stock Market Total Value Traded to GDP for United States (DDDM02USA156NWDB) from 1975 to 2019 about market cap, stock market, trade, GDP, and USA.

The average for 2021 based on 87 countries was 32.21 percent. The highest value was in Venezuela: 991.39 percent and the lowest value was in Botswana: -6.38 percent. The indicator is available from 1984 to 2021. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

China's main stock market index, the SHANGHAI, fell to 3898 points on December 2, 2025, losing 0.42% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has declined 1.98%, though it remains 15.36% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from China. China Shanghai Composite Stock Market Index - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

The average for 2022 based on 74 countries was 34.95 percent. The highest value was in Hong Kong: 794.22 percent and the lowest value was in Azerbaijan: 0 percent. The indicator is available from 1975 to 2022. Below is a chart for all countries where data are available.

Japan's main stock market index, the JP225, rose to 49553 points on December 2, 2025, gaining 0.51% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has declined 3.78%, though it remains 26.25% higher than a year ago, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Japan. Japan Stock Market Index (JP225) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

New York Stock Exchange: Index: Dow Jones US Large Cap Total Stock Market Index data was reported at 12,988.120 NA in Apr 2025. This records a decrease from the previous number of 13,072.870 NA for Mar 2025. New York Stock Exchange: Index: Dow Jones US Large Cap Total Stock Market Index data is updated monthly, averaging 6,845.950 NA from Aug 2013 (Median) to Apr 2025, with 141 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 14,146.240 NA in Jan 2025 and a record low of 3,846.950 NA in Aug 2013. New York Stock Exchange: Index: Dow Jones US Large Cap Total Stock Market Index data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Exchange Data International Limited. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.EDI.SE: New York Stock Exchange: Dow Jones: Monthly.

Context:

The provided dataset is extracted from yahoo finance using pandas and yahoo finance library in python. This deals with stock market index of the world best economies. The code generated data from Jan 01, 2003 to Jun 30, 2023 that’s more than 20 years. There are 18 CSV files, dataset is generated for 16 different stock market indices comprising of 7 different countries. Below is the list of countries along with number of indices extracted through yahoo finance library, while two CSV files deals with annualized return and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) has been computed from the extracted data.

Number of Countries & Index:

https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F15657145%2F90ce8a986761636e3edbb49464b304d8%2FNumber%20of%20Index.JPG?generation=1688490342207096&alt=media" alt="">

Content:

Unit of analysis: Stock Market Index Analysis

This dataset is useful for research purposes, particularly for conducting comparative analyses involving capital market performance and could be used along with other economic indicators.

There are 18 distinct CSV files associated with this dataset. First 16 CSV files deals with number of indices and last two CSV file deals with annualized return of each year and CAGR of each index. If data in any column is blank, it portrays that index was launch in later years, for instance: Bse500 (India), this index launch in 2007, so earlier values are blank, similarly China_Top300 index launch in year 2021 so early fields are blank too.

The extraction process involves applying different criteria, like in 16 CSV files all columns are included, Adj Close is used to calculate annualized return. The algorithm extracts data based on index name (code given by the yahoo finance) according start and end date.

Annualized return and CAGR has been calculated and illustrated in below image along with machine readable file (CSV) attached to that.

To extract the data provided in the attachment, various criteria were applied:

1. Content Filtering: The data was filtered based on several attributes, including the index name, start and end date. This filtering process ensured that only relevant data meeting the specified criteria.

2. Collaborative Filtering: Another filtering technique used was collaborative filtering using yahoo finance, which relies on index similarity. This approach involves finding indices that are similar to other index or extended dataset scope to other countries or economies. By leveraging this method, the algorithm identifies and extracts data based on similarities between indices.

In the last two CSV files, one belongs to annualized return, that was calculated based on the Adj close column and new DataFrame created to store its outcome. Below is the image of annualized returns of all index (if unreadable, machine-readable or CSV format is attached with the dataset).

Annualized Return:

As far as annualised rate of return is concerned, most of the time India stock market indices leading, followed by USA, Canada and Japan stock market indices.

https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F15657145%2F37645bd90623ea79f3708a958013c098%2FAnnualized%20Return.JPG?generation=1688525901452892&alt=media" alt="">

Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR):

The best performing index based on compound growth is Sensex (India) that comprises of top 30 companies is 15.60%, followed by Nifty500 (India) that is 11.34% and Nasdaq (USA) all is 10.60%.

The worst performing index is China top300, however this is launch in 2021 (post pandemic), so would not possible to examine at that stage (due to less data availability). Furthermore, UK and Russia indices are also top 5 in the worst order.

https://www.googleapis.com/download/storage/v1/b/kaggle-user-content/o/inbox%2F15657145%2F58ae33f60a8800749f802b46ec1e07e7%2FCAGR.JPG?generation=1688490409606631&alt=media" alt="">

Geography: Stock Market Index of the World Top Economies

Time period: Jan 01, 2003 – June 30, 2023

Variables: Stock Market Index Title, Open, High, Low, Close, Adj Close, Volume, Year, Month, Day, Yearly_Return and CAGR

File Type: CSV file

Inspiration:

• Time series prediction model
• Investment opportunities in world best economies
• Comparative Analysis of past data with other stock market indices or other indices

Disclaimer:

This is not a financial advice; due diligence is required in each investment decision.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index dropped around ***** points in the four weeks from February 12 to March 11, 2020, but has since recovered and peaked at ********* points as of November 24, 2024. In February 2020 - just prior to the global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the DJIA index stood at a little over ****** points. U.S. markets suffer as virus spreads The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a turbulent period for stock markets – the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also recorded dramatic drops. At the start of February, some analysts remained optimistic that the outbreak would ease. However, the increased spread of the virus started to hit investor confidence, prompting a record plunge in the stock markets. The Dow dropped by more than ***** points in the week from February 21 to February 28, which was a fall of **** percent – its worst percentage loss in a week since October 2008. Stock markets offer valuable economic insights The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock market index that monitors the share prices of the 30 largest companies in the United States. By studying the performance of the listed companies, analysts can gauge the strength of the domestic economy. If investors are confident in a company’s future, they will buy its stocks. The uncertainty of the coronavirus sparked fears of an economic crisis, and many traders decided that investment during the pandemic was too risky.

Oil prices dropped today due to concerns over the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in oil supply. However, the approval of vaccines and discussions of production cuts provide some hope for a potential recovery in the future.

Israel's main stock market index, the TA-125, rose to 3538 points on December 2, 2025, gaining 1.75% from the previous session. Over the past month, the index has climbed 4.40% and is up 50.06% compared to the same time last year, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks this benchmark index from Israel. Israel Stock Market (TA-125) - values, historical data, forecasts and news - updated on December of 2025.

The dataset contains 12 leading global stock indices and stock prices of companies.