The European equity market consists of thousands of publicly traded companies across more than 20 countries. Stocks are primarily listed and traded on major national exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange (UK), Euronext (France, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal), Deutsche Börse (Germany), and SIX Swiss Exchange. The market is best represented by pan-European indices like the STOXX Europe 600 (600 large, mid and small-cap stocks), the Euro Stoxx 50 (50 blue-chip eurozone companies), and country benchmarks including the FTSE 100 (UK), DAX (Germany), and CAC 40 (France). Together, these exchanges and indices make up what is referred to as the European equity market.