Indices

S&P: Standard and Poor’s 500 Index (USA)

Dow: Dow Jones Industrial Average (USA)

IBOVESPA: Ibovespa Brasil Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Index (Brazil)

MERVAL: Buenos Aires Stock Exchange Merval Index (Argentina)

NIKKEI: Nikkei 225 Index (Japan)
HANG SENG: Hang Seng Composite Index (Hong Kong)

FTSE 100: Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index (UK)

EURO STOXX: EURO STOXX 50 (Europe)

Indices are Virtual Portfolios

Indices are not actual funds that people invest in.
They represent the aggregated performance of a collection of stocks.

Indices track subgroups of the market, and may be designed specifically to track stocks in the same stock exchange, same country, or same sector.
Indices give investors a measure of the market’s status.
Professional investment managers may use indices as benchmarks against which they can evaluate their own fund’s performance.