Prosperity Group International

The FTSE 100 Index (footsie) is a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. The index began on 3 January 1984 with a base level of 1000; the highest value reached to date is 6950.6 on 30 December 1999.

The index is maintained by the FTSE Group, an independent company that originated as a joint venture between the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange.
FTSE 100 companies represent about 80 percent of the market capitalisation of the whole London Stock Exchange. Even though the FTSE All-Share Index is more comprehensive, the FTSE 100 is by far the most widely used UK stock market indicator. Other related indices are the FTSE 250 Index (which lists the next largest 250 companies after the FTSE 100), the FTSE 350 Index (which is the aggregation of the FTSE 100 and 250), FTSE SmallCap Index and FTSE Fledgling. The FTSE All-Share aggregates the FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and FTSE SmallCap.

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

ASX - (Sydney - Australian Stock Exchange - ASX200)

The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) is the primary stock exchange in Australia. The ASX began as a separate state-based exchange established as early as 1861. Today trading is all-electronic and the exchange is a public company, listed on the exchange itself.

The Australian Securities Exchange, as it is now known, resulted from the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in December 2006.

The biggest stocks traded on the ASX, in terms of their market capitalisation, include BHP Billiton, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Telstra Corporation, Rio Tinto, National Australia Bank and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group. As of 31 December 2006 the three largest sectors by market cap were financial services (34%), commodities (20%) and listed property trusts (10%).

The major market index is the S&P/ASX 200, an index made up of the top 200 shares in the ASX. This supplanted the previously significant All Ordinaries index, which still runs parallel to the S&P ASX 200. Both are commonly quoted together. Other indices for the bigger stocks are the S&P/ASX 100 and S&P/ASX 50.

The ASX is a public company, and its own shares are traded on the ASX. However, the corporation's charter restricts maximum individual holdings to a small fraction of the company.

While the ASX regulates other listed companies on the ASX, it cannot regulate itself, and is therefore regulated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Trading for this market opens at 10:00amAEST and closes at 4:00pmAEST (12:00amGMT through until 06:00amGMT).  (Back to top of page)

CAC – (Paris - French Stock Exchange – CAC40)

The CAC 40, which takes its name from Paris Bourse's early automation system Cotation Assistée en Continu (Continuous Assisted Quotation), is a French stock market index. The index represents a capitalisation-weighted measure of the 40 most significant values among the 100 highest market caps on the Paris Bourse. Its base value of 1,000 was set on 31 December 1987. As of 1 December 2003, the index has become a free float weighted index.

Interestingly, although CAC 40 is composed of 'French' companies, about 45 percent of their shares are owned by foreign investors. German investors share the largest part of it at 21 percent. Japanese, American and British investors are also important owners - this percentage is unusually high. The explanation can be in the fact that CAC 40 companies, or multinational, are more international than any other European market. Many of these companies conduct business outside of France (63 percent of the CAC 40 companies' employees are outside of France).

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

DAX – (Frankfurt - German Stock Exchange – XETRA DAX30)

Established on the orders of Emperor Louis the German to hold free trade fairs, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse in German) now known as the Deutsche Börse AG, ranks among the best trading centres of securities (stocks, bonds, corporate participating certificates, etc.) in the world today. Chronologically, it was the third Stock Exchange in the world, founded in 1585, after the Stock Exchanges of London and Paris.  The Frankfurt Stock Exchange is managed by Deutsche Börse, which owns it, along with the European Electronic Exchange - Eurex, and the clearing company, Clearstream.
Possibly the biggest player in the European market with the trading index DAX having risen by a spectacular 21 percent in 2007 alone, thereby overtaking every other developed market in terms of profits acquired.  The Frankfurt Stock Exchange enjoys around 85 percent of the total turnover of the German market.

They experienced a fabulous turnaround from the turbulent days of the integration of West Germany with East Germany in the 1990’s and again with the recession of 2003. The Frankfurt Stock Exchange may lose on the floors of the market during physical trading but it gains heavily in 'Xetra' or Exchange Electronic Trading system, an advanced business procedure dealing in securities, which is enlarging by the day and is based on the Eurex system.

The major trading index of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange is DAX or DAX 30 (Deutsche Aktien Xchange 30, earlier known as Deutscher Aktien-Index 30). With the prices derived from the global electronic securities trading system Xetra, DAX or DAX 30 (as the name suggests) is a Blue Chip stock market index comprising of the 30 major German companies that are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

COMPQ – (US Stock Exchange NYSE - NASDAQ Composite Index)

The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation System) is an American stock exchange. It is the largest electronic screen-based equity securities trading market in the United States. With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and has more trading volume per day than any other stock exchange in the world.

It was founded in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), who divested themselves of it in a series of sales in 2000 and 2001. It is owned and operated by the NASDAQ OMX Group.  Its stock was listed on its own stock exchange in 2002 and is currently monitored by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

With the completed purchase of the Nordic-based operated exchange OMX, following its agreement with Borse Dubai, NASDAQ is poised to capture 67 percent of the controlling stake in the aforementioned exchange, thereby inching ever closer to taking over the company and creating a trans-Atlantic powerhouse.  Nasdaq-OMX group as it's now known, controls and operates the NASDAQ stock market in New York City, which is the second largest in the US. In addition, it now operates eight stock exchanges in Europe and also holds 33.3 percent of the Dubai Stock Exchange. It has a double-listing agreement with OMX, which will render it more effective than the NYSE-Euronext group in attracting new listings.

Trading for this market opens at 11:30amAEST and closes at 6:00amAEST (13:30pmGMT through until 20:00pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

INDU – (US Stock Exchange NYSE - Dow Jones Industrials Average – DJIA30)

The Dow Jones Industrial average (NYSE: DJI), also called the DJIA, Dow 30, or informally the Dow Jones or The Dow) is one of several stock market indices created by nineteenth century Wall Street Journal editor and Dow Jones & Company co-founder Charles Dow. Dow compiled the index as a way to gauge the performance of the industrial component of America's stock markets. It is the second oldest continuing U.S. market index, after the Dow Jones Transportation Average, which Dow also created.

Today, the 'Dow Jones' consists of 30 of the largest and most widely held public companies in the United States. The 'industrial' portion of the name is largely historical—many of the 30 modern components have little to do with heavy industry. The average is price-weighted. To compensate for the effects of stock splits and other adjustments, it is currently a scaled average, not the actual average of the prices of its component stocks—the sum of the component prices is divided by a divisor, which changes whenever one of the component stocks has a stock split or stock dividend, to generate the value of the index. Since the divisor is currently less than one, the value of the index is higher than the sum of the component prices.

Trading for this market opens at 11:30amAEST and closes at 6:00amAEST (13:30pmGMT through until 20:00pm). (Back to top of page)

ISE – (Dublin - Irish Stock Exchange) – ISEQ20

The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) (Irish: Stocmhalartán na hÉireann) is Ireland's stock exchange, formed through the merger of the Cork and Dublin exchanges, both of which have existed as far back as 1793. In 1799, the Irish Parliament passed the Stock Exchange (Dublin) Act, which regulated the Cork and Dublin Stock Exchanges. In 1973, the Irish exchange merged with the other British and Irish stock exchanges. From 1973 to 1995, the Irish Stock Exchange was a member of the International Stock Exchange of Great Britain and Ireland (now called the London Stock Exchange). The current independent Irish Stock Exchange was established in 1995, breaking the link with London. On 6 June 2000, the ISE closed its famous trading floor in Anglesea Street, Dublin 2, and switched to an electronic trading platform called ISE Xetra. This is owned by, and is the same trading platform used by, the Deutsche Börse Group.

Most Irish public limited companies have their primary listing on the Exchange. However it is not compulsory for them to do so (the most notable exception is NTR plc, which is unlisted and traded via a grey market). Some companies based outside of the state, such as Tesco and UTV, also trade on the ISE (often via a secondary listing) for the convenience of their shareholders. The ISE also trades in a number of other equities, and Irish government bonds.

The published index of shares is known as the Irish Stock Exchange Quotient or ISEQ Overall Index. Other indices of the exchange include the ITEQ Index, the ISEQ 20, the ISEQ General, ISEQ SmallCap, and ISEQ Financial.

The exchange is owned by stockbroking firms, who together with the exchanges listed companies and funds, are levied for its upkeep. Traditionally, each city in Ireland would have had a number of stockbroking firms, organised as two man partnerships. Competition and globalisation has led to all firms now being located in Dublin (the last regional broker was W & R Morrogh of Cork, which closed in 2001 after the largest fraud in the history of the state) and most stockbroking firms are now attached to banks or other financial service companies.

In recent years, the exchange has come under pressure with firms listing on the London (especially the AIM market) and NASDAQ markets. However, in 2008, Dow Jones Industrial Average member, American International Group, chose the ISE as its only listing in Europe, replacing London, Paris and Zurich.

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

OMXN30 (Swedish Stock Index) – Swedish Index/OMXS30

The OMX Stockholm 30 Index is a capitalisation-weighted index of the 30 stocks that have the largest volume of the trading on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The equities use free float shares in the index calculation. The index was developed with a base level of 125 as of 30 September 1986.

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

SMI - (Zürich - Swiss Stock Exchange - SMI)

As a blue-chip index, the SMI is Switzerland's key equity index. It represents about 85 percent of the free-float capitalisation of the Swiss equity market. The SMI comprises the 20 largest and most liquid equities of the SPI®. It is also equivalent to the SPI Large. As a price index, the SMI is not adjusted for dividends, but a performance index that takes account of such distributions is available (the SMIC - SMI Cum Dividend).

Because the SMI is considered to be a mirror of the overall Swiss stock market, it is used as the underlying index for numerous derivative financial instruments such as options, futures and index funds (e.g. ETFs).

The SMI was introduced on 30 June 1988 at a baseline value of 1500 points. Its composition is examined once a year. Calculation takes place in real-time: as soon as a new transaction occurs in a security contained in the SMI, an updated index level is calculated and displayed.

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:20amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:20pmGMT). (Back to top of page)

IBEX- (Madrid- Spanish Stock Exchange - IBEX35)

The IBEX 35 (an acronym of Iberia Index) is the benchmark stock market index of the Bolsa de Madrid, Spain's principal stock exchange. Initiated in 1992, the index is administered and calculated by Sociedad de Bolsas, a subsidiary of Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME), the company that runs Spain's securities markets (including the Bolsa de Madrid). It is a market capitalisation-weighted index comprising of the 35 most liquid Spanish stocks traded in the Madrid Stock Exchange General Index, which are reviewed twice annually.

Trading on options and futures contracts on the IBEX35 is provided by MEFF (Mercado Español de Futuros Financieros), another subsidiary of BME. 

Trading for this market opens at 17:00pmAEST and closes at 1:30amAEST (7:00amGMT through until 15:30pmGMT).(Back to top of page)

MIB - (Milan - Italian Stock exchange - S&P / MIB)

The S&P/MIB is a market capitalisation-weighted index derived from the top 40 equities of the  Borsa Italiana. It covers more than 80 percent of the local market cap and its sector breakdown aims to mirror the health of the 10 economic sectors of the Italian Stock exchange at Milan. The Index is maintained by a partnership of  Standard and Poor's and Borsa Italiana. 

Trading for this market opens at 17:10pmAEST and closes at 1:25amAEST (7:10amGMT through until 15:25pmGMT).(Back to top of page)