The Shanghai Stock Exchange officially opened on1February, 1990, which is the first securities opened in Chinese mainland since the reform and opening up. Previously, China people's impression of the stock exchange was only a vague impression obtained from Mao Dun's novel Midnight and the film adapted from the novel.

On the opening day, 25 securities institutions from Shanghai, Shandong, Jiangxi, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hainan and Liaoning became members of the Exchange, including professional brokers, professional dealers, regulatory brokers and dealers.

The exchange adopts the cash loan trading method and does not engage in futures trading. At the beginning of its business, it mainly deals in bonds, including government bonds, corporate bonds and financial bonds, and also deals in stocks. Later, it gradually transitioned to paying equal attention to bond and stock trading.

Present situation and prospect

After years of sustained development, Shanghai securities market has become the leading market in China, with the number of listed companies, listed stocks, total market value, circulating market value, total securities turnover, stock turnover and national debt turnover ranking first. By the end of 2008, there were 864 listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, with 1 184 kinds of listed securities.

After entering the new century, Shanghai Stock Exchange shoulders the arduous task of standardizing market development and faces a good opportunity to further promote market construction.