S&P/ASX 200

The S&P/ASX 200 index is a market-capitalisation weighted and float-adjusted stock market index of Australian stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange from Standard & Poor's. It was started on 31 March, 2000 with a value of 3133.3, [cite web |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/03/20/1142703260196.html |title=Aussie market breaks 5000 point barrier |date=March 20, 2006 |publisher=Fairfax Media |work=Sydney Morning Herald |accessdate=2008-03-03] equal to the value of the All Ordinaries at that date.

The ASX 200 reached 6,000 points for the first time on Thursday 15 February 2007.Fact|date=July 2008

Calculation

The ASX 200 is "market capitalisation weighted" meaning that a company's contribution to the index is relative to its total market value i.e. share price x number of tradeable shares. The ASX 200 is also "float adjusted" meaning that the absolute numerical contribution to the index is relative to the stock's value at the float of the stock. [cite web |url=http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/pdf/index/Index_Mathematics_Methodology_Web.pdf |puplisher=Standard & Poor's |title=Index Mathematics Methodology |accessdate=2008-03-03 |format=PDF]

Although the calculation starts with a sum of the market capitalisation of the constituent stocks, it is intended to reflect changes in share price, NOT market capitalisation. Therefore a fudge factor called the "Divisor" is used to ensure that the index value only changes when stock prices change, not whenever market capitalisation changes. For example, if a company increases its market capitalisation by issuing new shares, the Divisor is adjusted so that the ASX 200 index value does not change.

Constituent companies

As at 3 March 2008, the constituent companies of the ASX 200 are:

ee also

* Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) listed on ASX, allowing tracking of S&P/ASX 50 & S&P/ASX 200

References

External links

* [http://www2.standardandpoors.com/portal/site/sp/en/au/page.topic/indices_asx200/2,3,2,8,0,0,0,0,0,3,1,0,0,0,0,0.html S&P/ASX 200 Implemented Index Additions and Deletions]
* [http://www2.standardandpoors.com/spf/xls/index/ASX200_20060217_C.xls Constituent list 17 February 2006] (MS Excel)