Opening of the S&P 500 on March 17

A good start for the S&P 500, which opens Thursday 17 March with a positive variation of 0.09%, reaching 4,361.60 points, after the start of the opening session. Compared to previous dates, the S&P 500 accumulates three sessions in a row in positive numbers.

Taking into account the last seven days, the S&P 500 marks an increase of 2.4%, so in the last year it still maintains a rise of 11.39%. The S&P 500 is 9.07% below its year-to-date high (4,796.56 points) and 4.58% above its current year's minimum valuation (4,170.70 points).

A stock market index is an indicator used to know the evolution of the value of a set of assets, for which it takes data from different companies or sectors from a fragment of the market.

These indicators are mainly used by the stock exchanges of countries and each of them can be integrated by companies with specific characteristics such as having a similar market capitalization or belonging to the same type of turnover, in addition, there are some indices that only take into account a handful of actions 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 a company. 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 make comparisons between return and risk; measure the opportunities of a financial asset; or create portfolios.

These types of indicators began to be used in the late 19th century after journalist Charles H. Dow. carefully analyse how companies' shares tended to rise or fall together in price, so it created two indexes: one containing the 20 most important railway companies (since it was the most important industry of the time), as well as 12 shares of other types of businesses

Today there are several indices and can be grouped according to their geography, sectors, size of companies or even the type of asset, for example, the US Nasdaq index is composed of the 100 largest companies largely 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 day of the bonus on the corresponding exchange by the total number of shares that are in the market.

Companies on the stock exchange are obliged to submit a balance sheet of their composition. This report should be submitted every three to six months, as appropriate.

Reading a stock market index also implies taking care of its variations over time. New indices always start with a fixed value based on the stock prices on their start date, but not all of them follow this method. Therefore, it can be misleading.

If one index increases 500 points in a day, while another only adds 20, it might seem that the first one performed better. However, if the first started the day at 30,000 points and the other at 300, it can be assumed that, in percentage terms, the gains for the second were larger.

Among the main US stock indices is the Dow Jones Industrial Average, better known as the Dow Jones, made up of 30 companies, the S&P 500, which includes 500 of the largest companies on the New York Stock Exchange. Finally, we must not forget the Nasdaq 100, which brings together 100 of the largest non-financial firms.

On the other hand, the most prominent indices in Europe are the Eurostoxx 50, which covers the 50 most important companies in the eurozone. Also, the DAX 30, the main German index containing the strongest 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 exchange.

In Asia, the main stock market indices are the Nikkei 225, made up of the 225 largest companies on the Tokyo stock exchange. In addition, there is the SSE Composite Index, it is seen as the most notable in China, made up of the most important companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Similarly, mention should be made of the Hang Seung Index in Hong Kong and the KOSPI in South Korea.

As far as the Latin American region is concerned, we have the CPI, which contains the 35 most consolidated firms on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV). At least a third of them belong to the capital of magnate Carlos Slim.

Another is the Bovespa, made up of the 50 most important companies on the Sao Paulo stock exchange; the Merval of Argentina; the IPSA of Chile; the IGBC in Bogotá; the IBC of Caracas, made up of 6 companies from Venezuela.

There are also other types of global stock indices such as MSCI Latin America, which includes the 137 most important companies in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

There is also 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 planet.

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