London’s FTSE 100 loses ground in February 15 open

Bearish session for the FTSE 100 (UK)which opens the session on Wednesday, February 15 with slight decreases in 0.28%until the 7,931.66 points, after opening. By analyzing these data with those of past days, the FTSE 100 (UK) ends two consecutive sessions with a positive trend.

Referring to last week’s profitability, the FTSE 100 (UK) accumulates an increase of 0.59%so that year-over-year there is still an increase of 5.31%. He FTSE 100 (UK) is located at 0.28% below its maximum this year (7,953.90 points) and a 5% above its minimum score for the current year (7,554.10 points).

Stock market indices… What for?

a stock market index is an indicator that shows how the value of a given set of assets is changingfor which it collects data from different companies or sectors of a part of the market.

These indicators are mainly used by the stock markets of various countries and each of them can be integrated by companies with different specificities such as having a similar market capitalization or belonging to the same industry, furthermore, some indices only consider a handful of stocks to determine their value or others which consider hundreds of stocks.

Stock indices serve as indicator of confidence in stock market, business confidence, health of national and global economy and stock investment performance and shares of the company. Generally, if investors are not confident, stock prices tend to fall.

They are also working to measure the performance of an asset manager and allow investors to compare profitability and risk; 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 study how company stocks tended to rise or fall together, he created two indices: one that contained the 20 largest railway companies (as it was the largest industry at the time) , as well as 12 shares of other types of companies

Currently, in our economy, there are various indices and They can be grouped by geographic location, industries, company size, or even asset class.For example, the American Nasdaq index is made up of the 100 largest companies mainly 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 calculation method, but the main component is the market capitalization of each company that incorporates it. This is obtained by multiplying the daily value of the share in the corresponding stock market by the total number of shares outstanding in the market.

Listed companies are required to present a balance sheet of its composition. This report must be published every three or six months, as the case may be.

Reading a stock market index also means examining its evolution over time. New indices always appear with a fixed value based on security prices on their start date, but not everyone follows this method. Therefore, this may lead to inaccuracies.

If one index increases by 500 points in one day, while another adds only 20, it may seem that the former has performed better. But, if the first started the day at 30,000 points and the other at 300, we can deduce that in percentage, the gains of the second were greater.

The main stock market indices

Between the major US stock indices is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, better known as the Dow Jones, made up of 30 companies. Likewise, the S&P500, which includes 500 of the largest companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Finally, it should be mentioned the Nasdaq 100which includes 100 of the largest non-financial companies.

On the other hand, the most important indices of Europe are the Euro Stoxx 50, which covers the 50 largest companies in the euro area. On the other hand, the DAX 30, the main German index containing the most outstanding companies on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange; there FTSE100 the London Stock Exchange; he CAC 40 of the Paris Stock Exchange; and the IBEX 35of the Spanish stock exchange.

In the asian continentthe main stock market indices are the Nikki 225, made up of the 225 largest companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There is also the SSE composite index, is considered the strongest in China, consisting of the most important companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The same role played by the Hang Seung Index in Hong Kong and the KOSPI in South Korea.

As it concerns Latin Americayou have the IPCwhich contains the 35 most consolidated companies on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). At least a third of them belong to tycoon Carlos Slim.

Another is the Bovespa, composed of the 50 most important companies of the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange; he Merval from Argentina; he IPSA From Chile; he MSCI COLCAP Columbia; he IBC of Caracas, made up of 6 companies from Venezuela.

Similarly, there are other types of global stock indices such as the MSCI Latin Americawhich includes the 137 most important companies from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

Likewise, there is MSCI World, which brings together 1,600 companies from 23 developed countries; he 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 corporations on the entire planet.