Opening of the OMX Stockholm 30 this February 20

Open continuous session for the OMX-30which begins the session of Monday February 20 with a variation of the 0%until the 2,249.49 dots, after the start of the opening session. If we compare the data with past days, the OMX-30 The direction of the previous data changes, when a decline of 0.06% was recorded, showing unable to establish a clear trend lately.

In the past seven days, the OMX 30 marks an increase of 0.73% and for a year it still accumulates an increase of 4.24%. He OMX-30 is located 1.96% below its maximum this year (2,294.52 points) and a 8.37% above its minimum valuation so far this year (2,075.76 points).

Stock market indices… What for?

a stock market index is an indicator that shows how the price of a set of assets is changingit therefore uses data from various companies or sectors of a market fragment.

These indicators are mainly used by the stock markets of various countries and each of them can be integrated by firms with specific characteristics like having a similar market capitalization or being in the same industry, there are also 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 an entity. Generally, if investors are not confident, stock prices will tend to fall.

They are also working to measure the performance of an asset manager and allow investors to make comparisons between return 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 analyze how company stock prices tended to rise or fall together, he created two indexes: one that contained the 20 largest railway companies (as it was the most important industry in the era), as well as 12 shares of other types of companies

Today there are various indices and They can agglomerate according to their location, 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 is a stock index measured?

Each stock index has its own way of being measured, but the main component is the market capitalization of each company that incorporates it. This is obtained by multiplying the daily value of the security on the corresponding stock market by the total number of shares outstanding on the market.

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

Reading a stock market index also requires observing its variations over time. New indices always start 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 rises 500 points in one day, while another only gains 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 greater.

These are the main stock market indices

Between the main stock indices of the American Union 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, we must not forget the Nasdaq 100that connects 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 important companies of 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, is considered the most representative of China, consisting of the most important companies of 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 the Latin American regionyou have the IPCwhich contains the 35 Most Outstanding 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.