Nikkei 225 opens in positive territory this February 16

Good connection for Nikki 225which opens on Thursday, February 16 with promotions from 0.66%until the 27,682.16 points, after the start of the opening session. By analyzing these data with those of the previous days, the Nikki 225 reverses data from the previous session, when it ended down 0.64%, showing that it is not capable of establishing a recently set trend.

Regarding the last seven days, the Nikki 225 recorded an increase of 0.35%so that a year ago there is still an increase in 1.46%. He Nikki 225 is located 0.04% below its maximum this year (27,693.65 points) and a 7.64% above its minimum valuation for the current year (25,716.86 points).

What is a stock index and what is it used for?

a stock market index is an indicator that shows how the value of a given set of assets is changingit therefore takes data from various companies or sectors of a part of the market.

These indicators are mainly used by the exchanges of each country and each of them can be integrated by firms with specific characteristics like having a similar market capitalization or belonging to the same type of company, likewise there are some indices that only consider a handful of stocks to determine their value or others that 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 they 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

Today in our economy there are various indices and They can be grouped according to their geography, their sectors, the size of the company or the type of assetFor example, the U.S. Nasdaq index is made up of the 100 largest companies with broad technology connections 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 factor is the market capitalization of each company that incorporates it. This is obtained by multiplying the daily value of the share on the corresponding stock market by the total number of shares that are on 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 involves taking into account its evolution over time. New indices always appear with a fixed value based on stock prices on their start date, but not everyone follows this method. Therefore, it can lead to failures.

If one index sees an increase of 500 points in one day, while another only gets 20, it may seem that the former has performed better. However, if the first started the day at 30,000 points and the other at 300, it can be deduced that in percentage terms the gains for the second were higher.

These are 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 comes 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. Also DAX 30, the main German index containing the strongest 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 Asiawe have the Nikki 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 most notable in China, consisting of the most important companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Also, it is worth mentioning 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 Powerful Companies on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). At least a third of them are part of the estate of 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.