Do you plan to invest in stock market? Do you have some selected scrips in your mind for making investment? If yes, it is extremely important for you to know how well that stock is performing; at what price is it available in the market and how it is expected to do in future. To arrive at a decision, you need some information related to the stock that reflects the financial implications of the stocks in question. Stock quote is that magical figure that gives you all the information related to stock. Due to all this crucial information they give, these can really be considered as the lifeline of an investor.
Stock quotes can be obtained in newspapers and online but the most convenient place is online as it is very close to real time information. Website like Yahoo! Finance and rediff help you get real-time quotes at a mouse-button click. Different sources provide different sets of information. Some might provide with detailed information like corporate actions, mutual fund activity in the shares in addition to some basic price information. Below is the list of common figures in the stock quote details:
52-week High/low
These are the highest and lowest price recorded in the last 52 weeks. The highest/lowest price figures for past 52 weeks can help make a judgement whether or not you should invest in stock at current price.
Days Range
It is the price range within which a stock has traded on a day. It thus consists of high/low price the stock has touched in a day.
PE
It is the Price to Earnings Ratio of the stock (per-share earnings by closing price).
Open and Close
Close is the last price quoted on a stock during a day. Open price is the opening price at which stock starts trading for a day. Opening price may not be same as the closing price of the stock on previous day.
Bid and ask prices
Bid price is the price a buyer is willing to pay for a stock while ask/offer is price at which seller is willing to accept the stock.
Trade volume
It is the quantity of shares traded on the stock exchange on a day. It helps you determine the liquidity of stock as you might land up in trouble if you want to sell your share and there is no one to buy it.
Percentage change
It refers to the percentage change between current stock price w.r.t to its previous close.
Market Capitalisation
It gives you an insight into the company’s equity capital available for trading and is the price of each share multiplied by number of equity shares outstanding.
Dividend
Some quotes also give the last dividend paid to the shareholders and can be useful in determining how much and what type of dividend can be expected from the company. This also details their record date, ex-date so that you can decide upon what time will be right to invest in the stock to avail the dividend.