1360.0 - Measuring Australia's Economy, 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 03/02/2003   
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Contents >> Section 8. Financial Markets >> Share Price Indexes

The All Ordinaries index generally increased steadily between August 1990 and August 2002, with stronger upward trends from April 1995. The main exceptions to the general increase were when the index turned down sharply in October 1997, August 1998, September 2001 as a result of the events of September 11, and during 2002 due to further global instability.





SHARE PRICE INDEXES(a) (31 DEC 1979 = 500.0)
Period
All industrials
All resources
All ordinaries
ANNUAL
1999-2000
5,769.5
1,338.3
3,257.6
2000-2001
5,973.7
1,582.0
3,425.2
2001-2002
5,432.9
1,575.3
3,163.2
MONTHLY
2001-02
July
5,718.9
1,459.9
3,270.8
August
5,649.6
1,416.8
3,217.8
September
5,251.8
1,328.5
2,998.0
October
5,603.0
1,407.0
3,185.3
November
5,721.0
1,506.4
3,276.9
December
5,847.7
1,572.9
3,360.0
January
5,886.2
1,650.8
3,404.0
February
5,752.5
1,711.4
3,358.6
March
5,764.1
1,693.8
3,363.3
April
5,684.5
1,610.6
3,299.5
May
5,710.8
1,644.7
3,325.1
June
5,432.9
1,575.3
3,163.2
2002-03
July
5,227.9
1,499.7
3,032.6
August
5,311.8
1,480.5
3,073.7
(a) Share prices on joint trading floors. Monthly figures are average of daily figures for the month. Annual index is from the last month of the year.

Source: Australian Stock Exchange, Monthly Index Analysis, Monthly data.


Explanatory Notes

Share price indexes provide an indication of price movements for listed shares on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). One of the most important of these is the All Ordinaries index. Share prices reflect business confidence in general, as well as expectations in specific industries.

On 3 April 2000 Standard & Poors took over the management of the ASX Indices. The All Ordinaries now includes 500 stocks being selected solely by market capitalisation (the market value of shares on issue, calculated using the number of shares multiplied by the share price for each company).

Another important index is the all resources index which measures the movement in share prices for leading mining and oil companies. There are also 24 sub-indexes for specific sectors within the share market.

Share price indexes only measure the capital gain or loss experienced by shareholders through fluctuations in share prices and do not take into account dividends earned. However, accumulation indexes, which indicate total pre-tax returns (after reinvesting dividends) from investments in listed shares, are also calculated.


Further Reading

Monthly Index Analysis
This Australian Stock Exchange release contains monthly records of all Australian share price and accumulation index movements, including sample changes, index weights comparisons with international indexes, currency adjusted indexes and exchange rates.


Australian Stock Exchange web site



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