What is a “point” on the stock market, what does it represent ?
To say the stock market has gone up 100 “points” what are you saying has increased and how is it determined?）
Answer ：
It means the index has increased by that many points.
In the US, the index will be made up of a particular set of listed companies (say the top 500 for the S&P). At a certain point in time, the aggregate capitalised valueof the top 500 companies were added up, and that number became 100. Every daily change in the value is compared to that original day (or divided by it) to get the new index.
The resulting change from day to day becomes the number of points the index has increased. So, the stock market going up 100 points means it has increased in capitalised value compared to yesterday.
Posted: July 29th, 2010 under US Stock Market.
Tags: Stock market