Australia

All Ordinaries

Established in January 1980, the All Ordinaries (colloquially, the "All Ords"; also known as the All Ordinaries Index, AOI) is the oldest index of shares in Australia, so called because it contains nearly all ordinary (or common) shares listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). The market capitalization of the companies included in the All Ords index amounts to over 95% of the value of all shares listed on the ASX.

When established, the All Ords had a base index of 500 - this means that if the index is currently at 5000 points, the value of stocks in the All Ords has increased tenfold since January of 1980, not factoring in inflation.

On 3 April, 2000, the All Ords was restructured to consist of the 500 largest companies by market capitalisation [1]. This coincided with the introduction of new benchmark indices such as the S&P/ASX 200. The importance of the All Ords has been significantly lessened by the introduction of these new indices.

As of November 01, 2007, the All Ords index was at a record 6873.20. As of January 22, 2008, due to turmoil related to the US 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis , the index has fallen minus 24 percent to 5,222.0 points.