Financial Centres

Financial centres bring together investors and the businesses that need their investment.

Things traded in financial centres include: securities on the stock markets; commodities such as cereals, coffee and precious metals on the commodity markets, currencies on the foreign exchange or forex markets.

The stock market is the financial centre of any country. It reflects any change in the economy. It is sensitive to interest rates, inflation and political events. In a very real sense, it has its fingers on the pulse of the entire world.

The stock exchanges exist to allow investors to buy and sell shares, and companies to raise capital. They also provide a market for government loans and securities. On the market, the main operators are the market-makers who trade in a group of shares, and stockbrokers who act as agents for their clients. Market-makers sell to stockbrokers.

A share (BrE) or stock (AmE) is any of the equal parts into which the capital of a company is divided. Securities are shares and bonds (official papers given by a company or the government, to prove that you have lent them money and that they will pay it back with interest).

When prices in a stock market or currency market are rising people talk about a bull market. When prices are falling people talk about a bear market.

Exercises in Word Study

Ex.1. Form nouns from the following verbs:

reflect, exist, invest, govern, operate, act, divide, prove.

Ex.2. Give the English for:

торгувати акціями; фондова біржа; товарна біржа; валютна біржа; дорогоцінні метали; валюта; урядові позики та цінні папери; біржовий маклер; капітал компанії; облігації; позиковий відсоток; ринок “биків”; ринок “ведмедів”.

Ex.3. Match words from list A with words from list B that have a similar meaning:

Ex.4. Find suitable opposites to the following words:

to rise, to borrow, to include, partial, to unite, to prove.

Ex.5. Match the nouns in the left-hand column with the verbs in the right-hand column:

Ex.6. Look at the words and phrases in the box. Match them with the correct definition from the list below:

1. a market where stocks and shares are bought and sold under fixed rules, but at prices controlled by supply and demand;

2. a place where raw materials and some manufactured goods are bought and sold;

3. a market where foreign currencies are traded;

4. a person or organization that buys and sells stocks and shares;

5. a certificate of debt;

6. shares and bonds;

7. a market in which the general level of share prices is rising;

8. a market where the general level of share prices is falling;

9. the amount of interest that is paid for money at a savings bank, on a bond, etc;

10. a rise in prices and lowering of currency’s value.