One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute. Stock market is a general term used to refer to organized trading of securities. It can be an actual place, like a stock exchange, but nowadays trade is less and less linked to such a physical place, as modern markets are electronic networks. Big companies usually issue shares on the major stock exchanges (which are a primary market of their share issue), while smaller companies usually join some type of over-the-counter (OTC) market, i.e. market on which shares are sold after they have been issued on primary market and which is conducted over the telephone or electronically.
Stock market index is a listing of stocks of large companies, and a statistic reflecting the market capitalization value of its component stocks, all of which have some things in common such as trading on the same stock exchange, belonging to the same industry, or having similar market characteristics. The most regularly quoted market indices are the American Dow Jones and S&P, the British FTSE 100, the Japanese NIKKEI 225, the Hong Kong Hang Seng, etc. The official index of the Zagreb Stock Exchange is CROBEX.
Columns High/Low show the highest and lowest prices (in pence) for the shares during the current year. For example, the highest price at which Unilever’s shares were bought and sold was 712 and the lowest price was 400 pence. Stock is the name of the share. Price shows the price of the share as it stood at the close of business the previous day. Change shows how much the closing price of the share changed in comparison with the previous day’s closing price. For example, Unilever closed 15 pence higher than the previous day. Yield shows how much shareholders can expect to receive as a dividend, in pence, for every £1 invested (based on the current share price). Price – Earnings ratio (P/E) refers to the present market price of a company share divided by the earnings per share for the previous year.
