The European financial indexes are just as volatile as their American counterparts. Some of these indexes have experienced major financial fallout during the early part of the year but are now successfully coming back on track. To help you understand the European market better, let us take a look on some of the financial indices in Europe.
Let’s begin with FTSE UK Index, also known as the London Financial Times Index. The FTSE Index series is use to gauge the performance of companies operating in UK. The index provides investors a good look on the current performance of industry and capital financial segments in UK’s equity market.
Another major financial index in Europe is the CAC 40, termed in French as CAC quarante or also known as Cotation Assistée en Continu quarante. This index is the benchmark used by the French stock market. It measures the weighted market capitalization of forty most significant numeric values among the one hundred market caps on Euronext Paris. The CAC 40 is one of the main national indices of Euronext sitting next to PSI-20 (Lisbon), BEL20 (Brussels), and AEX (Amsterdam). While CAC 40 is mostly composed of French companies, 45% of its listed shares are actually owned by international investors, composing of British, Americans, Japanese and Germans, which are among its significant share holders.
DAX, a German stock index, is consists of about thirty major companies in Germany that are trading within the Frankfurt stock exchange market. DAX (Deutscher Aktien Index) index generally measures the market capitalization and book volume of 30 major German companies which help to gauge their overall market performance.
Euro Stoxx 50 is designed by Stoxx, ltd, which is an index provider operated by the Deutsche Borse and SIX Group. This blue chip stock index is made to represent Eurozone’s super sector leaders. It consists of European companies from the steel, finance, pharmaceutical, automotive, energy and petroleum industry.
OMX Stockholm 30 Index, meanwhile, measures the weighted market value of 30 most traded stocks within the Stockholm Stock Exchange. Developed with a base level of 125 on the 30th of September in 1986, the equities of this index make use of free floating shares for its index calculation.
Swiss market index is the most important financial market index in Switzerland. Developed in the 30th of June in 1988 with a base value of 1,500, the Swiss market index comprises 85% of the Swiss equity market’s free-floating market capitalization.
Getting to know the different financial indexes in Europe will help investors to keep track and monitor the performance of various companies operating within the major financial markets of the European region. Doing so will aid them in choosing which European company would be worth investing their money in.