6. What is a stock market index?

In the previous video, we discussed how a trading platform works to buy & sell stocks. Now, zooming out, you might have heard people say that the market is up or down on a particular day, but how did they make that judgement?

This is where stock indices like the Nifty 50, Nifty Midcap 100, and Nifty Smallcap 100 come into the picture. There are various types of indices, but the most popular indices tend to the broad market indices like Nifty 50 and Sensex 30. They contain the biggest stocks listed on NSE and BSE. By looking at their performance, you can broadly get an idea about how the market have moved. In this video, we understand what an index is, how it is built and it's users.

[achalkagwad]

Appreciate the effort in making such good content. One small feedback, when displaying the "Key TakeAways" the screen is clouded by the upcoming videos and a big Zerodha Varsity Logo, which obstructs the Key Takeaways. Can fix that in the next iteration.

[dhanushprabhus]

Key takeaways from this chapter
An index acts as a barometer of the whole economy.
An index going up indicates that the market participants are optimistic.
An index going down indicates that the market participants are pessimistic.
There are two main indices in India – The BSE Sensex and NSE’s Nifty
An index can be used for a variety of purposes – information, benchmarking, trading and hedging.
Index trading is probably the most popular use of the index.
India follows the free-float market capitalization method to construct the index.
There are sector-specific indices which convey the sentiment of specific sectors.

[natherhut]

Which would be the best trading platform?

[debarthasaikia]

Please move the next video thumbnail near the corner keywords are not seen

[sha.shankz]

crazy how in just an year nifty has gone up 3000 points thats a lot

[Emingsel]

Very informative for a new player like me

[shivamgoyal]

how can I see the weightage of all 50 stocks listed in nifty 50 ?

[SaGa_]

The lessons are not visible due to the logo

[raghavhs]

Mutual funds lesson is available in zerodha varsity please 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 tell

[achalkagwad]

Please make all the modules in Zerodha Varsity as Downloadable PDFs. Some modules are available as downloadable PDFs, some aren't. Thanks.