The All Ords Index is the primary market indicator for Australia’s share market.

The stock index is the composition of Australia’s 500 largest companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. This is merely an indicator of the market conditions, and does not take into account the liquidity of the stocks that form part of the index.

The All Ordinaries is typically known as:

* XAO
* All Ords
* All Ords Index

How the All Ordinaries Index is calculated

The market capitalisation  of any company in the All Ordinaries Index portfolio is the number of shares on issue multiplied by the current price per share in that company.

The Average Market Value (AMV) of the All Ordinaries Index share portfolio is the sum of all the market values of the companies included in the index.

The All Ordinaries Index has started with a base value of 500.0 at the end of trading on the last trading day in December 1979.

Movements in the All Ordinaries Index have been since calculated by multiplying the index by the ratio of current to past AMVs.

Movements in the All Ordinaries Index in the period before 1980 have been calculated using movements in the older state-based indices.