This year the markets have registered a constant volatility. (Infobae)
Day without changes for the ARE 100, which begins on Friday, March 24 with a variation of 0.19%, up to 5,071.49 points, after the start of the opening session. With respect to previous dates, the ARE 100 Add three consecutive days in green.
In relation to the profitability of the last seven days, the ARE 100 notes a drop of 1.26%; On the other hand, in year-on-year terms, it still maintains a rise of 133.17%. He ARE 100 it stands 10.42% below its maximum so far this year (5,661.10 points) and 12.57% above its minimum price for the current year (4,505.34 points).
A stock index is an indicator that shows how the value of a certain set of assets changes, for which it uses data from different companies or sectors of a fragment of the market.
These indicators are used mainly by the stock markets of each country and each one of them can be integrated by companies with specific requirements, such as having a similar market capitalization or belonging to the same type of industry. In addition, there are some indices that only they consider a handful of shares to determine their value or others that consider hundreds of shares.
Stock indices serve as an indicator of confidence in the stock market, business confidence, the health of the national and global economy, and the performance of investments in shares and shares of an entity. Generally, if investors are not confident, stock values tend to fall.
They also work to measure the performance of an asset manager and allow investors to analyze risk vs. return comparisons; measure the opportunities of a financial asset or create portfolios.
These types of indicators began to be used at the end of the 19th century after the journalist Charles H. Dow. To carefully investigate how the shares of companies tended to rise or fall together in price, he created two indices: one that contained the 20 largest railway companies (as it was the most important industry at the time), as well as 12 shares of other types of businesses
Currently there are various indices and they can be associated based on their geographical location, sectors, company size or also the type of asset, for example, the US Nasdaq index is made up of the 100 largest companies mostly related to technologies such as Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOG), Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), PayPal (PYPL), Comcast (CMCSA), Adobe (ADBE).
Each stock index has its own way of being measured, but the main component is the market capitalization of each company that integrates it. This is obtained by multiplying the value of the security on the corresponding stock market by the total number of shares that are on the market.
The companies that appear on the stock market are required to present a balance sheet of their composition. Said report must come to light every three or six months, as the case may be.
Reading a stock index also requires examining its changes over time. New indices always open at a fixed value based on the stock prices on their start date, but not all follow this method. Therefore, it can be misleading.
If one index sees an increase of 500 points in one day, while another only gets 20, it might appear that the former performed better. However, if the first started the day at 30,000 points and the other at 300, it can be concluded that, in percentage terms, the gains for the second were more remarkable.
Among the main stock indices in the United States is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, better known as Dow Jones, made up of 30 companies. Likewise, the S&P 500, which includes 500 of the largest companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Lastly comes the Nasdaq 100, which links 100 of the largest non-financial firms.
On the other hand, the most important indices in Europe are the Eurostoxx 50, which covers the 50 most important companies in the euro area. On the other hand, the DAX 30, the main German index that contains the most prominent companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange; the FTSE 100 of the London Stock Exchange; the CAC 40 of the Paris Stock Exchange; and the IBEX 35, of the Spanish stock market.
In Asia, the main stock indices are the Nikkei 225, made up of the 225 largest companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There is also the SSE Composite Index, which can be considered the most notable in China, made up of the most relevant companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Similarly, it is worth mentioning the Hang Seung Index in Hong Kong and the KOSPI in South Korea.
Regarding the Latin American region, there is the IPC, which contains the 35 most consolidated firms on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). At least a third of them are owned by tycoon Carlos Slim.
Another is the Bovespa, made up of the 50 most important companies on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; the Merval from Argentina; the IPSA of Chile; the MSCI COLCAP of Colombia; the IBC of Caracas, made up of 6 companies from Venezuela.
Similarly, there are other types of global stock indices such as the MSCI Latin America, which includes the 137 most important companies in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
Similarly, there is the MSCI World, which includes 1,600 companies from 23 developed countries; the MSCI Emerging Markets, made up of more than 800 companies from developing countries; and the S&P Global 100, made up of the 100 most powerful multinational firms on the entire planet.