Deutsche Borse appears to have trumped a strong field with its purchase of a 5 per cent stake in the Bombay Stock Exchange. The BSE, India's number two exchange, has been talking to most of the world's large exchanges about a stake sale, including, reportedly, the London Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

The BSE may yet bring another foreign market into its fold, such as the Singapore Stock Exchange, although this would now have tobe done with the agreement of Deutsche Börse. It is easy to see what the BSE gets.