The Caracas Stock Exchange or Bolsa de Valores de Caracas (BVC) is a

stock exchange A stock exchange, securities exchange, or bourse is an exchange where stockbrokers and traders can buy and sell securities, such as shares of stock, bonds and other financial instruments. Stock exchanges may also provide facilities for ...

located in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. Established in 1947, BVC merged with a competitor in 1974. The Caracas Stock Exchange hit a new all time high on January 9th, 2025.

Operational and Legal Structure

BVC is a private exchange, providing operations for the purchase and authorized sale of

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

according to the Capital Marketing Laws of Venezuela. It is member of the Executive Committee of the Latin American Federation of Stock markets. At the exchange, companies emit by procedures authorized by the regulating authorities, instruments of

fixed income Fixed income refers to any type of investment under which the borrower or issuer is obliged to make payments of a fixed amount on a fixed schedule. For example, the borrower may have to pay interest at a fixed rate once a year and repay the pr ...

and securities (''renta fija y de renta variable'') with the purpose of securing capital from public investors. BVC is also used as a location for trading in Bonds and other

debt Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money Loan, borrowed or otherwise withheld from another party, the creditor. Debt may be owed by a sovereign state or country, local government, company, or an individual. Co ...

instruments. The legal structure prevailing in the Venezuelan capital market are the Securities

Marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

Law (''la Ley de Mercado de Capitales'', enacted in 1975 and amended in 1998), Transaction Law (''Ley de Caja de Valores''), the Statutory Law of Public Credit (''Ley Orgánica de Crédito Público''), the Law of Organizations of Collective Investment and the norms dictated by the National Exchange Commission (''Comisión Nacional de Valores'', or CNV). Exchange activities are regulated and supervised by the National Exchange Commission, a public entity assigned to the Ministry of Finance, that authorizes internal procedures and regulations.

Board of directors

The

Board of Directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

of the Caracas Stock Exchange is presided over by Víctor Julio Flores. Additional members include Santiago Fernández Castro, Marcel Apeloig, Omar Delgado, José Gregorio Castro, Gabriel Osío, Jesús Tadeo Prato, Luis Oberto, Carlos Fernández and Mario Dickson, as well as by advisers Luis Andrés Guerrero and Rubén Manzur.

History and Performance

The origins of the Venezuelan stock market can be traced to the end of the colonial era, when in 1805 Don Bruno Abasolo and Don Fernando Key Muñoz founded the ''Casa de Bolsa y Recreación de los Comerciantes y Labradores'' in Caracas. The exchange was officially founded on January 21, 1947 and inaugurated its first trading session on April 21 of the same year, after previously trading stocks over the counter. On May 6, 1976, the assembly of shareholders decided to change the denomination of the institution to ''Bolsa de Valores de Caracas C.A.'', and initiated a new operating structure composed of 43 shareholders, or ''puestos de bolsa'', an amount that would be increased to 63 members in 1995.

Performance

In 1990, with an increase of 602%, the market was the second-best performing that year (after Poland). In April 2007, 60 companies were listed on the BVC, with less than half being traded regularly. BVC experienced a severe decline in traded volumes since the mid-1990s as a result of a declining

economy An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

, the migration of stocks to the U.S. markets in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), corporate takeovers with a concomitant reduction in the number of shares available for trade and an increasing country risk that has frightened investors, particularly foreign investors. Daily trading volume decreased from the equivalent of $25 to $30 million in 1997 to less than $1 million by 2000. The BVC survived during this period thanks to a growing trade of government debt securities. Stock prices, measured by the ''Indice Bursátil Caracas'', were also depressed during the 1990s and have yet to recover to the highest ever levels experienced in 1991. According to the International Finance Corporation, the market value of the BVC was $7 billion in 2000, or just about 6 percent of GDP.Urbi Garay & Maximiliano Gonzalez, ''CEO and Director Turnover in Venezuela'', Inter-American Development Bank In 2005 total transactions on the BVC totaled USD$438 million.

Electronic Exchange

BVC has been completely electronic since February 1992, when a modern electronic trading system developed by the Vancouver Stock Exchange entered operations. On July 2, 1999 another technological change was made when the SIBE (''Sistema Integrado Bursátil Electrónico''), electronic trading system was officially incorporated into the Caracas Stock Exchange.

Notes

External links

Official Page
{{Authority control Stock exchanges in South America Economy of Venezuela Financial services companies of Venezuela Caracas Financial services companies established in 1947 1947 establishments in Venezuela Companies listed on the Caracas Stock Exchange