KOSPI rose 0.37% in the South Korean market after the close of operations on July 15

Day of hikes for the KOSPI which closed the session on Friday, July 15, with slight increases in 0,37% until the 2,330.98 points. The KOSPI scored a maximum of 2,337.30 points and a minimum of 2,293.45 points. The trading range for KOSPI between its highest point and its lowest point (maximum-minimum) during this day stood at 1,88%.

In the last seven days, the KOSPI marks a decrease in 0,84%so that in the last year it still maintains a drop in 29,05%. The KOSPI stands one 22,02% below its maximum this year (2,989.24 points) and a 1,7% above its minimum valuation so far this year (2,292.01 points).

Stock market indices… for what?

a stock index is an indicator that shows how the price of a certain set of assets changes for which you need to have data from different companies or sectors of a part of the market.

These indicators are mainly used by the stock markets of different countries of the world and each of them can be integrated by companies with different specificities such as having a similar market capitalization or belonging to the same type of industry, in addition, there are some indices that only take into account a handful of shares to determine their value or others that consider hundreds of shares.

Stock market indices serve as 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. If investors lack confidence, stock values ​​will tend to fall.

They also work to measure the performance of an asset manager and allow a comparison to be made between profitability and risk; measure the opportunities of a financial asset or create portfolios.

This type of indicators began to be used at the end of the 19th century after journalist Charles H. Dow. closely watched how company stocks tended to go up or down together in price, so he created two indices: one containing the top 20 railroad companies (since it was the biggest industry at the time), as well as 12 actions of other types of businesses. Today in humanity there are various indices and they can be grouped according to their location, sectors, company size or even the type of assetFor example, the US Nasdaq index is made up of the 100 largest companies mostly related to technology such as Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), Facebook (FB), Alphabet (GOOG), Tesla (TSLA ), Nvidia (NVDA), PayPal (PYPL), Comcast (CMCSA), Adobe (ADBE).

How to read an index?

Each stock index has its own way of calculating, but the main component is the market capitalization of each company that integrates it. This is obtained by multiplying the value of the day of the title in the corresponding stock market by the total number of shares that are in the hands of the investors.

Firms listed on the stock exchange are required to present a balance of its composition. This report must be made public every three or six months, as appropriate. Reading a stock index also implies analyzing its changes over time. New indices always appear with a fixed value based on stock prices on your start date, but not everyone follows this method. Therefore, it may seem misleading. If one index sees an increase of 500 points in one day, while another only adds 20, it might seem like the first one outperformed. However, if the former started the day at 30,000 points and the other at 300, you can see that, in percentage terms, the gains for the latter were more significant.

Major stock indices

Between the major US stock indices There is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, better known as Dow Jones, made up of 30 companies. Also, the S&P 500, which includes 500 of the largest companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Finally comes the Nasdaq 100which brings together 100 of the largest non-financial firms.

On the other hand, the most outstanding indices of Europa are the Eurostoxx 50, which covers the 50 largest companies in the eurozone. He too DAX 30, the main German index containing the strongest companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange; the FTSE 100 from the London Stock Exchange; the CAC 40 of the Paris Stock Exchange; and the IBEX 35of the Spanish stock market. In the asian continentwe have the Nikkei 225, made up of the 225 largest companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There is also the SSE Composite Index, which is listed as the main one 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.

Talking about Latin Americayou have the IPCwhich contains at 35 most prestigious firms of the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). At least a third of them belong to the capital of tycoon Carlos Slim.

Another is the bovespa, made up of the 50 most important companies on the São Paulo stock exchange; the Merval from Argentina; the IPSA From Chile; the MSCI COLCAP from Colombia; the IBC of Caracas, made up of 6 companies from Venezuela. Similarly, there are other types of global stock market indices such as the MSCI Latin Americawhich 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 100made up of the 100 most powerful multinational firms on the planet.