Linear graph of the S&P 500 index from 1949 to March 2007

Logarithmic graph of the S&P 500 index from 1950 to January 2008

Logarithmic graph of the S&P 500 index with simple trend lines

The S&P 500 stands for Standard & Poor 500 and is a free-float capitalization-weighted index published since 1957 of the prices of 500 large-cap common stocks actively traded in the United States. The stocks included in the S&P 500 are those of large publicly held companies that trade on either of the two largest American stock market exchanges: the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ.^{[citation needed]}

The index focus is U.S.-based companies although there are a few companies with headquarters in and/or incorporated in other countries.^[1]

After the Dow Jones Industrial Average^{[citation needed]}, the S&P 500 is one of the most commonly followed equity indices, is considered a bellwether for the American economy, and is included in the Index of Leading Indicators. Many mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and other funds such as pension funds, are designed to track the performance of the S&P 500 index. Hundreds of billions of US dollars have been invested in this fashion.

The index is the best known of the many indices owned and maintained by Standard & Poor's, a division of McGraw-Hill. S&P 500 refers not only to the index, but also to the 500 companies that have their common stock included in the index. The ticker symbol for the S&P 500 index varies. Some examples of the symbol are ^GSPC^[2],.INX^[3], and $SPX^[4]. The stocks included in the S&P 500 index are also part of the broader S&P 1500 and S&P Global 1200 stock market indices.

History[link]

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Standard & Poor's introduced its first stock index in 1923. Before 1957, its primary daily stock market index was the "S&P 90", a value-weighted index based on 90 stocks. Standard & Poor's also published a weekly index of 423 companies. The S&P 500 index in its present form began on March 4, 1957. Thanks to the computer technology emerging at the time, this index could be calculated and disseminated in real time. The S&P 500 is widely employed as a measure of the general level of stock prices, as it includes both growth stocks and the generally less volatile value stocks.

The index reached an all-time intraday high (which was not exceeded for over seven years) of 1,552.87 in trading on March 24, 2000, during the dot-com bubble, and then lost approximately 50% of its value in a two-year bear market, spiking below 800 points in July 2002 and reaching a low of 768.63 intraday on October 10, 2002 during the stock market downturn of 2002. The S&P 500 remained below its year 2000 all-time high somewhat longer than the popular Dow Jones Industrial Average and the more comprehensive Wilshire 5000. However, on May 30, 2007, the S&P 500 closed at 1,530.23 to set its first all-time closing high in more than seven years. The highest point reached was 1,565.15 on October 9, 2007.

In mid-2007, difficulties stemming from subprime mortgage lending began spreading to the wider financial sector, resulting in the second bear market of the 21st century. The resulting crisis became acute in September 2008, ushering in a period of unusual volatility, encompassing record 100-point moves in both directions and reaching the highest levels since 1929.^[5] On November 20, 2008, the index closed at 752.44, its lowest close since early 1997.^[6] A modest recovery the following day still left the index down 45.5% for the year. This year-to-date loss was the greatest since 1931, when the broad market declined more than 50%;^[7] the total losses that ushered in the Great Depression exceeded 80% over a three-year period. The market continued to decline between late 2008 and early 2009 surrounding the events involving the financial crisis of 2008, reaching a nearly 13-year closing low at 676.53 on March 9. Subsequently, the index recovered sharply to close at 1,206.07 on December 1, 2010, up over 78% from the low but still down by more than 23% from the 2007 high; this respite has been alternately characterized as heralding a return to economic growth, or a significant counter-trend bear market rally. After a sharp summer correction of an early 150-point gain in 2011, the S&P 500 closed above 1,400 on March 15, 2012 at 1,402.60, its highest close since June 6, 2008 and only 0.03 from its intraday high. On April 2 ,2012 a intraday High of 1422.38 was reached. this was the highest leval since May 19 ,2008 when a intraday high of 1440.24 was reached and this was the highest in all of 2008.

Selection[link]

The components of the S&P 500 are selected by committee. This is similar to the Dow 30, but different from others such as the Russell 1000, which are strictly rules-based.

The index does include a handful (15 as of May 8, 2012) of non-U.S. companies. This group includes both formerly U.S. companies that have reincorporated outside the United States, as well as firms that have never been incorporated in the United States.

The committee selects the companies in the S&P 500 so they are representative of the industries in the United States economy. In addition, companies that do not have common stock that trades publicly (such as limited partnerships and companies that are privately or mutually held) and stocks that do not have sufficient liquidity are not in the index. By contrast, the Fortune 500 attempts to list the 500 largest public companies in the United States by gross revenue, regardless of whether their stocks trade or their liquidity, without adjustment for industry representation, and excluding companies incorporated outside the United States.

Components[link]

Versions[link]

The "S&P 500" generally quoted is a price return index; there are also "total return" and "net total return" versions of the index. These versions differ in how dividends are accounted for. The price return version does not account for dividends; it only captures the changes in the prices of the index components. The total return version reflects the effects of dividend reinvestment. Finally, the net total return version reflects the effects of dividend reinvestment after the deduction of withholding tax.^[8][9]

Weighting[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

The index has traditionally been market-value weighted; that is, movements in the prices of stocks with higher market capitalizations (the share price times the number of shares outstanding) have a greater effect on the index than companies with smaller market caps.

The index is now float weighted. That is, Standard & Poor's now calculates the market caps relevant to the index using only the number of shares (called "float") available for public trading. This transition was made in two steps, the first on March 18, 2005 and the second on September 16, 2005.

Index maintenance[link]

In order to keep the S&P 500 Index comparable across time, the index needs to take into account corporate actions such as stock splits, share issuance, dividends and restructuring events (such as merger or spinoffs). Additionally, in order to keep the Index reflective of American stocks, the constituent stocks need to be changed from time to time.

To prevent the value of the Index from changing merely as a result of corporate financial actions, all such actions affecting the market value of the Index require a Divisor adjustment. Also, when a company is dropped and replaced by another with a different market capitalization, the divisor needs to be adjusted in such a way that the value of the S&P 500 Index remains constant. All Divisor adjustments are made after the close of trading and after the calculation of the closing value of the S&P 500 Index.

Update frequency[link]

The index is updated every 15 seconds during trading sessions.

Investing[link]

Many index funds and exchange-traded funds attempt to replicate (before fees and expenses) the performance of the S&P 500 by holding the same stocks as the index, in the same proportions. Many other mutual funds are benchmarked to the S&P 500. Consequently, a company whose stock is added to the list of S&P 500 stocks may see its stock price rise, as the managers of index funds normally choose to purchase that company's stock in order to continue tracking the S&P 500 index. Several mutual fund managers also provide index funds that track the S&P 500, the first of which was The Vanguard Group's Vanguard 500 in 1976.^[10] Many retirement plans offer such funds. For example, the Thrift Savings Plan's C Fund tracks the total return S&P 500 index.

In addition to investing in a mutual fund indexed to the S&P 500, investors may also purchase shares of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) which represents ownership in a portfolio of the equity securities that comprise the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. One of these ETF's is called the Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts; NYSE: SPY, originating from a chain of ETFs called the SPDRs, pronounced "spiders", and is issued by SSgA State Street Global Advisors. Typical volume for the SPY SPDR averages between 300-400 million shares per day; the highest of any US stock traded on any exchange.

On October 10, 2008, trading volume for the SPY SPDR surpassed 871 million shares; with a closing price of $88.50, the monetary value of traded shares which changed hands exceeded an astounding 77 billion dollars for the day.^[11] BlackRock offers the iShares S&P 500 NYSE: IVV, which is similar to the SPDRs, but is structured differently. Both the SPDRs and the iShares have a management expense ratio of under 0.1% a year; making them an efficient proxy for the underlying index, while achieving a performance close to the S&P 500 (minus fees and expenses).

Through RydexShares, fund manager Rydex also offers an ETF, the S&P Equal Weight NYSE: RSP, which provides equal exposure to all the companies in the S&P 500. In addition, Rydex offers other related S&P 500 index ETFs such as the 2x NYSE: RSU, which attempts to match the daily performance of the S&P 500 by 200% and the Inverse 2x NYSE: RSW, which attempts to match the inverse daily performance by 200%. More heavily traded ProShares issued by ProFunds offer Inverse Performance NYSE: SH for a bearish strategy on the index, Inverse 2x Performance NYSE: SDS, and 2x Performance NYSE: SSO. For additional leverage, ProFunds also offers 3x Performance NYSE: UPRO, which attempts to match the daily performance of the S&P 500 by 300% as well as Inverse 3x Performance NYSE: SPXU, which attempts to match the inverse daily performance of the S&P 500 by 300%.

In the derivatives market, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) offers futures contracts that track the index and trade on the exchange floor in an open outcry auction, or on CME's Globex platform, and are the exchange's most popular product. Additionally, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) offers options on the S&P 500 as well as S&P 500 ETFs, inverse ETFs and leveraged ETFs.

Market statistics[link]

See also[link]

• S&P Completion
• Standard & Poor's
• List of S&P 500 companies
• Fortune 500
• FTSE 100
• S&P 400
• S&P 600
• S&P 1500
• S&P 100
• E-mini S&P
• Index fund
• Exchange-traded fund

References[link]

External links[link]

• CNN Money page for SPX
• Overview of the S&P 500 from Standard & Poor's
• S&P 500 Fact Sheet (PDF Format)
• Logarithmic Chart of S&P 500 (1950-present) at Yahoo! Finance

S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Background information
Birth name	Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam
Born	(1946-06-04) 4 June 1946 (age 66) Konetammapeta, Nagari Mandal, Andhra Pradesh, India
Origin	Andhra Pradesh, India
Genres	Playback singing
Occupations	Singer, actor, music director, film producer
Years active	1965–present

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam ( pronunciation (help·info); Telugu: శ్రీపతి పండితారాధ్యుల బాలసుబ్రహ్మణ్యం; born 4 June 1946) is an Indian playback singer, actor, music director, voice actor and film producer. He is sometimes referred to as S. P. B. or Balu. He won the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer six times. He won the Nandi Awards 25 times from Andhra Pradesh.

He has sung over 40,000 songs in various Indian languages. He is the only playback singer in India to have won National Film Awards across four languages. He has also won a Filmfare Award, three Filmfare Awards South and numerous state awards from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. He is a recipient of civilian awards such as Padmashri (2001) and Padma Bhushan (2011) from the government of India.^[1]

Early life and background[link]

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Balasubrahmanyam was born to S. P. Sambamurthy in Konetammapeta of Madras Presidency, present day Nellore district in Andhra Pradesh in a Brahmin Family.^[2] Balasubrahmanyam's father was a Harikatha artist who had also acted in plays.^[3] He has two brothers and five sisters. He is the elder brother of singer S.P. Sailaja.^[4] He is married to Savitri and has two children, Pallavi^[5] and S. P. B. Charan who is a playback singer and film producer as well.^[6][7]

Balasubrahmanyam developed an interest towards music at an early age, studied notations and learned to play instruments such as the harmonium and flute on his own while listening to his father. His father wanted him to become an engineer, which brought him to Anantapur, where he enrolled for the Engineering course at JNTU College of Engineering Anantapur. Later he discontinued the course due to typhoid, and then joined as an Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers, Chennai. Meanwhile, he also pursued his hobby and won awards at many singing competitions. In 1964, he won the first prize in a music competition for amateur singers organised by the Madras-based Telugu Cultural Organisation, and earned his first opportunity from music director S. P. Kodandapani.

After dropping out of engineering, Balasubrahmayam used to regularly visit music composers seeking for opportunities to sing. The first song that he sang for an audition was, "Nilave Ennidam Nerungadhe", a melody rendered by veteran playback singer P. B. Srinivas. It was P. B. Srinivas who used to write and give him some multi-lingual verses in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Sanskrit, English and Urdu.^[8]

Playback singing Career[link]

Balasubrahmanyam has sung more than 40,000 songs in different Indian languages.^[9][10] He holds the record of having sung the most number of songs for any male playback singer in the world.^[11]

Early career: 1960s[link]

Before becoming a cinema singer, Balasubrahmanyam was the leader of a light music troupe composed of Anirutta (on the harmonium), Ilaiyaraaja (on guitar and later on harmonium), Baskar (on percussion), and Gangai Amaran (on guitar).^[12] Balasubrahmanyam made his debut as a playback singer on 15 December 1966 with Sri Sri Sri Maryada Ramanna,^[13] a Telugu film scored by his mentor, S. P. Kodandapani.^[14] He was selected as the best singer in a singing competition which was judged by S. P. Kodandapani and the legendary singer Ghantasala.^[15][16] Balasubrahmanyam was selected as the best singer.^[17] He recorded his first non-Telugu song in the Kannada movie Nakkare Ade Swarga for the song "Kanasido Nanasido" with P. Susheela in 1967.

He recorded his first Tamil song in the 1969 film Shanthi Nilaiyam starring Gemini Ganesan. His sang "Aayiram Nilavae Vaa" for M.G.R in the Tamil film Aadimai Penn. He was introduced to Malayalam film industry by R. K. Shekhar in the film Yogamullava. In 1969 he sang "Ee Kadalum Marukadalum" from the film Kadalppalam in Malayalam.^[18]

Prominence in South: 1970s[link]

He received his first National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer in 1980 for the Telugu film Shankarabharanam, a film directed by K. Vishwanath. In 1976, he recorded up to 23 songs, including 15 duets with P. Susheela in a single day. For Kannada composer Upendra Kumar, Balasubrahmanyam recorded 16 songs in just 6 hours. Again for Ram Laxman, he recorded six songs in 4 hours in Mumbai. Between three recording theatres in Mumbai, he sang 17 songs in a day for Anand-Milind.^[19]

He is the first recipient of the "Ghantasala National Award" named after the famous and legendary singer Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, and whom Balasubrahmanyam admires a lot. He has often referred to himself as "Ekalavya Sishya" (untutored disciple) of Ghantasala^[20]

Bollywood entry: 1980s[link]

Balasubrahmanyam's first break in Hindi films was Ek Duje Ke Liye (1981), for which he received the National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.^[11] He was playback singer for Bollywood actor Salman Khan in most of his movies from 1989 to 1995.^[21][22]

1990s[link]

In the 1990s he worked with composers like Vidyasagar, M. M. Keeravani, S. A. Rajkumar but his association with A. R. Rahman turned out be a major success.

The song "Umandu Ghumandu" from the Kannada film Ganayogi Panchakshari Gavayi (1995) was based on Hindustani classical music, for which he received his 4th National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer.^[23]

Association with composers[link]

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M. S. Viswanathan used S.P.B's voice in the 1970s various Tamil movies. Under his composition S.P.B got opportunities to sing for senior actors like M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan and Gemini Ganesan during this period. SPB recorder numerous duet numbers with P. Susheela, Vani Jayaram and L. R. Eswari.

Balasubrahmanyam recorded many songs with K. V. Mahadevan throughout the 1970s, mostly in Telugu. The duo worked in a film called Shankarabharanam in 1979 which was based on carnatic music. He got his first National Film Award through this film.

Balasubrahmanyam's association with Ilaiyaraaja began in the late 1970s when the latter made his cinematic debut. Balasubrahmanyam began to record more songs in Tamil especially for Ilaiyaraaja. The Ilaiyaraaja-S.P.B-S. Janaki trio was considered to be highly successful in the Tamil film industry from the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. The trio went on to work in Telugu films based on classical music like Saagara Sangamam (1983), for which both Ilaiayaraaja and S.P.B won National Film Awards, Swathi Muthyam (1986) and Rudraveena (1988) which again fetched National Awards for Ilaiyaraaja and S.P.B ^[23]

Balasubramanyam's association with Hamsalekha began after the latter's successful venture premalokha in Kannada. Balasubramanyam sung most number of songs for Hamsalekha in Kannada. He also got National Award for the song 'Umandu Gumundu' of the movie Ganayogi Pachakshari Gavayi composed by Hamsalekha.

Balasubrahmanyam recorded two songs for A. R. Rahman in his debut film Roja. He had a long time association with Rahman right from Roja, the latter's debut film. Other popular songs include "July Maadham" from Pudhiya Mugam, which also marked the debut of singer Anupama, "Mannoothu Manthayilae" from Kizhakku Cheemayile which was a folk number and he almost sang all songs in the musical love story Duet and "Thanga Thaamarai" from Minsara Kanavu which fetched his sixth and latest of his National Film Award for Best Male Playback Singer till date.

Non-singing career[link]

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Actor[link]

As an actor he played roles in films like Pakkinti Ammayi, Parvathaalu Paanakalu, Pelli Varahandi, Kalyanathasava, Malle Pandiri, Raja Hamsa, Minsara Kanavu, Manathil Uruthi Vendum, Thiruda Thiruda, Keladi Kanmani, Sigaram, Maya, Avvai Shanmugi, Ratchagan, Nandhini, Kadhalan, Prema Maha Yedabidargi, Maya Bazaar. He has performed character roles in more than 45 films including Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. He received Nandi Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Telugu movie Pavithra Bandham (1996) from the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Music composer[link]

He has composed music for around 40 films and albums like Seethamma Pelli, Bharyamani, Sandarbha, Bangaru Chilaka, Mayuri, Ramanna Shyamanna, Ksherasaagara, Devaralle Dane, Belliyappa Bangarappa beside few films like Muddina Maava, Sigaram, Unnai Charanadaithaen, Padamati Sandhya Ragam in Telugu, Hindi Tamil and Kannada languages. He also owns a production company called Kodandapani Film Circuits (now Captain cine creations) and produces film under this banner. Films like Subha Sankalpam, Bhamane Satya Bhamane were produced by him.

Television career[link]

He began a Tamil serial with actress Lakshmi called En Jannal Vandha directed by K. Balachander. He hosts many music shows in Telugu television including Paadutha Theeyaga on E-TV, Paadalani Undi on MAA TV, a Kannada show called Ede Thumbi Haaduvenu on E-TV Kannada, and the Tamil shows Ennodu Paattu Paadungal on Jaya TV^[24] and Vaanampaadi on Kalaignar TV.^[24] He also anchors a music show called Sunada Vinodini on TTD Channel.

Voice actor[link]

Balasubrahmanyam accidentally became a dubbing artist with Kamal Hassan's film Manmadha Leela, the dubbed version of Manmadha Leelai.^[25] He has also provided voice-overs for various artists, including Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Salman Khan, K. Bhagyaraj, Mohan, Anil Kapoor, Girish Karnad, Gemini Ganesan, Arjun Sarja, Nagesh, Karthik and Raghuvaran in various languages. He was assigned as the default dubbing artist for Kamal Hassan in Telugu dubbed versions of Tamil films and vice versa. For the Telugu version of Dasavathaaram he gave voice to 7 characters (including the female character) out of 10 characters played by Kamal Hassan.^[26] He was awarded Best Dubbing Artist for the films Annamayya and Sri Sai Mahima.

Awards and honors[link]

Filmography[link]

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As actor[link]

Television career[link]

As music composer[link]