Stock Exchanges Ranked by Market Capitalisation

Something genuinely unusual happened in 2026: Nasdaq passed the New York Stock Exchange to become the largest exchange in the world by market capitalisation, a position the NYSE had held for as long as the measure has existed. The reason is not that more companies listed there, it is that the companies already listed there are the ones that grew, which tells you most of what you need to know about where value has concentrated over the past decade.

How this is ordered. Ordered by domestic market capitalisation as reported to the World Federation of Exchanges, largest first. Each row states its own as-of date, because members report on different schedules.

1. 1

   Nasdaq

   United States. Technology-weighted.

   $35.0T

   Domestic market cap

   First place for the first time, having spent its entire history behind the NYSE. The composition explains it: Nasdaq is where the largest technology companies list, and technology is what compounded fastest over the past decade. The same concentration that produced this ranking is the concentration that makes a US index fund far less diversified than its five-hundred-company label suggests.

   March 2026, WFE domestic market capitalisation
2. 2

   New York Stock Exchange

   United States. Founded 1792.

   $31.0T

   Domestic market cap

   Displaced from a position it had effectively always occupied, and still enormous. The NYSE skews toward established industrials, financials, healthcare and energy, which is why its listings held up better than Nasdaq's in 2022 and grew more slowly in the years either side. The two exchanges together are roughly two fifths of all listed equity value on earth.

   March 2026, WFE domestic market capitalisation
3. 3

   Shanghai Stock Exchange

   China. Largely domestic investor base.

   $10.2T

   Domestic market cap

   The largest exchange outside the United States, and structurally different from the two above it: access for foreign investors is restricted, and the listed base is weighted toward state-linked industry and banking rather than consumer technology. Its size relative to its accessibility is why most global index funds hold far less China than its economy would imply.

   May 2026
4. 4

   Euronext

   Pan-European, seven countries.

   $8.7T

   Domestic market cap

   Not a national exchange but a merged group operating markets in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan and Oslo on a single platform, which is why it outranks any individual European exchange. Consolidation of this kind is the main reason European listings hold together at all against US market depth.

   March 2026, WFE domestic market capitalisation
5. 5

   Japan Exchange Group

   Japan. Tokyo and Osaka.

   $7.6T

   Domestic market cap

   Japan's listed market spent decades below its 1989 peak, and its recent strength owes as much to corporate governance reform pushing companies to release trapped balance-sheet value as to earnings growth. A useful reminder that a market can go sideways for a generation, which is the sort of horizon most return assumptions quietly ignore.

   March 2026, WFE domestic market capitalisation
6. 6

   Shenzhen Stock Exchange

   China. Growth and technology weighted.

   $7.35T

   Domestic market cap

   China's second exchange, and the one weighted toward private technology and manufacturing rather than state-linked incumbents, which makes it the closer analogue to Nasdaq than Shanghai is. The figure is converted from renminbi, so a meaningful part of any year-on-year change in the dollar number is the exchange rate rather than the market.

   May 2026, converted from renminbi

Global equity market capitalisation across all WFE members reached roughly $151.9 trillion, up about 18.5% on the previous year end. The six exchanges below account for well over half of it.