Euronext Brussels

The Brussels Stock Exchange has a long history, with the exchange being deeply rooted in the Belgian economy throughout the years. Originally founded by Napoleon in 1801, the exchange didn’t have a permanent home until the stately Bourse building was constructed between the years of 1868 and 1873. The Bourse then housed the Brussels Stock Exchange until 1996.

During the end of the 20th century, the exchange witnessed the 1989 launch of CATS (the computer aided trading system and a huge leap forward into electronic trading) and the 1991 launch of BEL 20, the most widely recognised benchmark of the Belgian stock market. In 1996, the trading floor closed, as the market switched to fully electronic trading.

In 1999, there was a merger between the Brussels Stock Exchange, Belfox and CIK to form BXS (Brussels Exchanges). However, this was quickly changed again in 2000, where there was another merger to unite Brussels Exchanges with the Paris Stock Exchange and the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Together, these previously completely independent exchanges formed Euronext.

In 2002, both the Bolsa de Valores de Lisboa e Porto and the London International Financial Futures Exchange also joined Euronext. Following years saw increasing mergers and additions, including a merger between Euronext and the New York Stock Exchange to create NYSE-Euronext and the Irish Stock Exchange becoming part of the Euronext Group as Euronext Dublin.

The index used to track the Brussels Stock Exchange is:

BEL 20

Generally, the BEL 20 is an index that consists of between 10 and 20 companies that trade on the Brussels Stock Exchange and is the most widely-used metric for assessing the health of the Belgian economy.