Main stock indices

Stock indices are tools that give an idea of the current state of the stock markets, in other words, they show the direction of the market. Often they are also called stock.

Exchange indices are calculated on the basis of a certain number of securities. The number of shares that affect the calculation of a particular stock index is usually indicated at the end of its name, for example, DAX 30, CAC 40, NASDAQ 100 and S & P 500. Thus, the change in the value of the stock index reflects the dynamics of prices of hundreds or tens of shares. And various stock indices of the same stock market allow you to evaluate it from different angles.

Key stock indices and their characteristics

In our time in circulation there are over two thousand different stock indices. But among them is the most popular ones: the indicators are FTSE 100, S & P's 500, RTS, NASDAQ, Nikkei, DAX, Dow Jones, MICEX.

FTSE 100

This index characterizes the state of the UK stock market. FTSE 100 is one of the most significant indicators of Europe. It is built on the basis of 100 liquid shares, which are contained in the quotation list of the London Stock Exchange LSE. Calculated since 1984.

Standard & Poor's 500

For a particular indication, this indicator is often called the barometer of the US economy. As the name says, the rating agency Standard & Poor's traditionally deals with the definition of this exchange's indicator. It takes into account the change in the market value of securities of 500 US corporations, which are quoted on two major US stock exchanges - the NYSE and NASDAQ.

RTS

RTS (PTC, Russian Trading System) is a stock exchange created in 1995, with the goal of establishing a centralized market for all Russian securities on the basis of the regional stock markets that operated at that time.

A number of stock indices PTC (RTC) includes stock indices S & P / RUX-OIL, S & P / RUX, RTSI, Rux-Cbonds and RTST and is designed to assess the capitalization of large companies in Russia.

NASDAQ

The most popular in the NASDAQ family of stock indicators are NASDAQ 100 stock indicators along with NASDAQ Composite. NASDAQ, which, along with AMEX and the NYSE, belongs to the main US stock exchanges, appeared in early 1971 and is aimed at trading in securities of firms specializing in high technology.

Nikkei

A number of stock indices of the Japanese stock exchange in Tokyo got its name due to the newspaper, which has already published these major Japanese indices for several decades: Nikkei 500 indicator, Nikkei 300 indicator, Nikkei All Stock Index index.

The most popular in this family is the stock exchange indicator Nikkei 225, which shows the weighted average value of securities of 225 companies that are represented in the first section of the stock exchange in Tokyo.

DAX

This is Germany's main stock market indicator. The index, which appeared in 1988, takes into account the cost of 30 German firms that are leaders in various sectors of the economy: Deutsche Bank, Lufthansa, Commerzbank, Bayer AG, Allianz, Siemens, Deutsche Telekom, BASF and others.

Dow Jones (DJIA)

Probably, there is no person in the world who has not heard about this index. For the first time the Dow Jones record was used more than a century ago. The number of companies whose shares were taken into account the value of this exchange rate has changed several times over time. In the beginning, in 1896, there were 13 of them, in 1916 - 25, and since 1928 and the current time the Dow Jones index is invariably based on the price of shares of 30 companies. In fact, it is equal to the average arithmetic value of the securities of these largest American corporations.

In addition to the main, the values of the Dow Jones stock indices for certain sectors of the economy are calculated: the transportation index DJ (at the cost of securities of 20 industry giants), the community indicator DJ (at the cost of securities of 15 companies), and the composite index based on The cost of 65 shares, and a number of other stock indices.

MICEX

It is a composite index of the Moscow exchange of the same name, for the calculation of which the price of the most liquid securities of Russian companies is taken into account. The initial value of this indicator was calculated for the end of 1997 and is taken as 100. To determine the price of the ten most liquid shares is taken into account.