The New York Stock Exchange, the largest US stock market, has revealed plans to offer free stock prices to retail investors via websites, a move that brings it into line with its main rivals Nasdaq OMX and Bats Trading, which struck deals in the last month.

NYSE, a subsidiary of transatlantic market NYSE Euronext, has applied to the US financial watchdog the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to make available its real-time stock prices to websites that will offer these free to online users.