NASDAQ AND FTSE 100

NASDAQ AND FTSE 100 Index



NASDAQ AND FTSE 100 Index

Introduction

The Nasdaq Composite is a price index. The index is calculated solely on the basis of stock prices and adjusted only for income from stock options and bonuses. It is weighted by the market capitalization of listed companies. Corporate actions such as stock splits do not have a (distorting) effect on the index. The calculation is performed while the NASDAQ trading between 9:30 and 16:00 local time (15:30 to 22:00 CET) will be updated every second. The NASDAQ composite index reflects the performance of all contradictory to the NASDAQ-traded company. The Nasdaq Composite Index was introduced in February 1971 and started with 100 index points. The index includes all stocks listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations), the North American market for growth stocks listed. The weighting of the values are in terms of market capitalization. With around 5,000 listed companies from home and abroad, the Nasdaq Composite to the world's major stock barometers (James, 2002). The selection of index values and their weighting will be reviewed once a year and updated as appropriate. 

The FTSE 100 index (pronounced as "Footsie") is the most important British equity index. FTSE refers to the Financial Times Stock Exchange. The FTSE 100 is a Publisher that provides information on development and State of the British share prices of the 100 largest and most companies on the London Stock Exchange (Rutterford, 2007). Thus, forms the market segment of the British blue chips from and is the benchmark index for the UK stock market.

Discussion

The data for the point's index of the Nasdaq Composite Index and FTSE 100 index have been taken from their official websites, the data set comprises of last five days i.e. from 8th of August 2011 to 12th of August 2011. We have taken the opening as “Open”, highest as “High”, lowest as “Low” and closing as “Close” points as the variables for our data set.

Nasdaq Composite index

Date

Open

High

Low

NASDAQ Close

12-Aug

2492.68

2524.09

2481.5

2507.98

11-Aug

2381.05

2516.39

2399.56

2492.68

10-Aug

2482.52

2461.28

2378.08

2381.05

9-Aug

2357.69

2483.66

2331.65

2482.52

8-Aug

2,532.41

2489.39

2357.69

2357.69

FTSE 100 INDEX

Date

Open

High

Low

Close

12-Aug-11

5,162.80

5,320.00

5,099.30

5,320.00

11-Aug-11

5,007.20

5,172.70

4,943.00

5,162.80

10-Aug-11

5,164.90

5,262.70

4,990.80

5,007.20

9-Aug-11

5,069.00

5,175.60

4,791.00

5,164.90

8-Aug-11

5,247.00

5,295.80

5,062.40

5,069.00

A) Compare the Highest and Lowest Values

12-Aug

Nasdaq Highest Points

2,507.98

8-Aug

Nasdaq Lowest Points

2,357.69

The table above shows that Nasdaq Composite Index has reached its highest points in the whole week on the 12th of August i.e. 2507.98 points while on the 8th of August it has found to be on the lowest points i.e. 2357.69 points. The 6% difference between the highest and lowest points shows that index was fluctuated within a week, although it was only 6% but it matters a lot for an index to fluctuate this much.

FTSE Highest Points

5,320.00

12-Aug-11

FTSE Lowest Points

5,007.20

10-Aug-11

It can be seen from the above table that the highest points FTSE 100 index reached last week at 5320.00, which was on the 12th August, whereas the lowest was observed on the 10th August, when the index reached at 5007.20 points.

Comparing the highest and lowest points on the basis of indices suggest that there is a huge difference between the two indices, as the FTSE 100's highest value reached in the last week was 5320 while Nasdaq Composite reached at the ...