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Nasdaq

About Nasdaq

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What is Nasdaq?

The Nasdaq is the second-largest stock exchange in the world. Nasdaq, which is an acronym for National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System, was established in 1971.
 
The US-based exchange is also the first-ever electronic stock market in the world. Back in the day, stock exchanges were physical trading floors, where prices were decided in face-to-face negotiations. Nasdaq changed the way stock exchanges functioned. It had no trading floors and let investors buy and sell stocks on a computerised systems.
More than 3,700 companies are listed including some of the largest technology firms in the world such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. The exchange was created by the National Association of Securities Dealers and is overlooked by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
 
In colloquial language, when people say ‘Nasdaq’, what they refer to is the index and not the stock exchange. What they refer to is the Nasdaq Composite Index, which, is a statistical measure of a portion of the stock market.
 
Nasdaq also has a ‘Nasdaq 100’ index that tracks 100 of the largest and most actively traded equities on the exchange.
 

What is Nasdaq Composite Index?

The Nasdaq Composite Index— commonly known as just ‘Nasdaq’—is one of the most widely used indices. It tracks the performance of stocks that are traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. It is one of the most popular stock indices tracked by market participants to represent how the market as a whole is performing.
 
To be listed on the exchange, a stock must be listed exclusively on the Nasdaq stock exchange and be a common stock of a US-based company or be an ADR (American depositary receipt) of a foreign firm. Ordinary shares, stocks of limited partnership interests and tracking equities can also be included in the index.
 
Nasdaq is a known to be a tech-heavy index. As of July 2021, technology firms made up half of the index.
 
Nasdaq Composite is a market-cap-weighted index. This means that each company included in the is weighted based on its total market capitalisation. Therefore, companies with bigger market capitalisations have a relatively more significant impact on the performance of the index than firms with smaller m-caps.
 

What is the difference between Nasdaq and NYSE?

NYSE, which is the New York Stock Exchange, is the world’s largest stock exchange based on the total market capitalisation of its listed stocks.
 
The key distinction is that Nasdaq is a dealer’s market, with participants trading through a dealer rather than directly with each other. These dealers maintain stock inventories to buy and sell from their accounts in transactions with customers and other dealers. On the other hand, NYSE is an auction market, which enables investors to transact with each other via designated market makers.
 
While both institutions are based in New York City, the location of transactions for trading on Nasdaq and on the NYSE are different. NYSE retains a physical trading floor and also conducts trades electronically from New Jersey. On the other hand, Nasdaq does not have a physical trading floor.
 
While Nasdaq is a tech-heavy index, NYSE, which was founded in 17,92, is home to many blue chip firms including Walmart and Coca-Cola.
 

What is ‘The Dow’?

The Dow refers to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). It is an index just like the Nasdaq Composite and that indicates the performance of overall stock market.
 
The DJIA is not the same as Dow Jones and Company that is owned by News Corp. The index is owned by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a joint venture of S&P Global, CME Group Inc, and News Corp.
 
Started in 1896, DJIA is a price-weighted average of 30 significant equities traded on the NYSE and the Nasdaq.
 

What is the S&P 500 Index?

The Standard and Poor’s 500 Index, which is referred to as the S&P 500 index, is one of the most popular indices in the world.
 
It comprises the shares of 500 publicly traded companies in America with the highest values of market capitalisation.
 
This index is calculated using the free-float market capitalisation method. Free-float market capitalisation refers to the value of shares that are available for public trade.
 
Because S&P 500 tracks the prices of large-cap US equities, it is considered a proxy for showing the health of stock market and the economy. 

Latest Updates on Nasdaq

The tech-heavy Star 50 Index has rallied 19% this year, beating the 5.8% advance in the benchmark CSI 300 Index and the 7.2% rise in the broader Shanghai Composite Index

Updated On: 07 Apr 2023 | 10:45 PM IST

The company in a public statement said that over the past financial year, it had refinanced $525 million in the domestic markets ahead of the March 2024 maturity

Updated On: 29 Mar 2023 | 12:00 AM IST

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board is exploring buying the shares of ReNew Energy Global Plc that it doesn't already own and taking the Nasdaq-listed firm private

Updated On: 24 Mar 2023 | 9:45 PM IST

Wall Street mixed as investors weigh possible rate hike pause, bank contagion risks

Updated On: 13 Mar 2023 | 9:07 PM IST

The executive left at least six months ago; decision was announced at a company town hall meeting

Updated On: 08 Mar 2023 | 7:11 PM IST

Under phase-2 of PLI guidelines, of the total corpus of Rs 19,000 crore, the highest tranche of Rs 12,000 crore has been allotted to the manufacture of polysilicon wafer cells modules

Updated On: 05 Mar 2023 | 11:19 PM IST

Nasdaq-listed firm says demand for travel and tourism improved during the quarter on peak seasonality. Gross booking grew 64% YoY in constant currency terms to $1.74 billion

Updated On: 31 Jan 2023 | 6:46 PM IST

Nasdaq-listed IT company Cognizant announced a new 10-year services agreement valued at about $1 billion with CoreLogic, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider

Updated On: 26 Jan 2023 | 10:03 PM IST

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were up in early trading, with a 1.3% rise in tech stocks making them the biggest gainers

Updated On: 23 Jan 2023 | 9:49 PM IST

Deal size could expand to $827 mn if additional milestone-based payments are made

Updated On: 19 Jan 2023 | 10:09 PM IST

HCLTech will be ODP's IT partner for end-to-end IT operations and enterprise-wide digital transformation

Updated On: 07 Jan 2023 | 2:11 PM IST

Despite bumps on the route, insiders believe that the company is still aiming for the sky

Updated On: 06 Jan 2023 | 10:06 PM IST

As bellwether stocks, Nike and Fedex promise healthy estimates; Micron dampens holiday spirit

Updated On: 22 Dec 2022 | 11:43 PM IST

The AMC had suspended fresh subscriptions to these schemes in Jan after the MF industry came close to breaching global investment limit

Updated On: 22 Nov 2022 | 9:02 PM IST

CLOSING BELL: Barring minor downtick in the Nifty Auto, FMCG, and PSU Bank indices, all other sectoral indices advanced on the bourses. The Nifty IT index led from the front with around 4% surge

Updated On: 11 Nov 2022 | 3:52 PM IST

Stocks to watch today: Coal India, Divi's Lab will report the July-September quarter (Q2FY23) results on Monday, November 7; SBI's net profit climbed 73.9 per cent YoY to Rs 13,265 crore in Q2FY23

Updated On: 07 Nov 2022 | 7:53 AM IST

Stock market wrap: Reliance alone contributed 231 points to the 30-share benchmark. Maruti, M&M and NTPC were the other major gainers. The Metal and IT sector witnessed selling pressure.

Updated On: 28 Oct 2022 | 4:07 PM IST

Shares of Microsoft and Google-owner Alphabet were up 0.6% and 1.2% respectively, while Apple and Amazon.com also rose ahead of reporting quarterly earnings this week

Updated On: 25 Oct 2022 | 9:01 PM IST

Bank of America posts better-than-expected Q3 results; Goldman Sachs up on report of major business overhaul S&P surges 2.85%, Nasdaq 3.37%

Updated On: 17 Oct 2022 | 8:19 PM IST

US bond market shut for Columbus Day holiday; S&P 500 tech sector leads declines

Updated On: 10 Oct 2022 | 8:29 PM IST