Simple, practical explainers on the stock market, IPOs and investing.
Looking for one term? The A–Z glossary lists every explainer on one page.
88 articles
Book value is a company's assets minus its liabilities — the shareholders' equity on the balance sheet. Divided by the share count it becomes book value per share, the number behind the P/B ratio.
Face value is the fixed nominal value a company assigns to each share. It anchors share capital, splits and percentage dividends — and has almost nothing to do with market price.
The upper circuit is the highest price a stock can trade at in a session and the lower circuit is the lowest, both set from the previous close. Hitting one blocks orders beyond it — it does not halt trading.
A circuit limit is the most a price can move in one session: stocks get daily bands of 2-20% around the previous close, and the whole market halts on a 10, 15 or 20% index move.
Number of trades counts matched executions, while volume counts shares. Volume divided by trades gives average trade size — a quick read on whether activity was many small orders or a few large ones.
Volume counts how many shares changed hands; turnover is the rupee value of those trades. Price bridges the two, which is why identical volumes can move wildly different amounts of money.
The bid is the highest price a buyer is offering for a share and the ask is the lowest a seller will accept. The gap between them — the bid-ask spread — is what trading immediately costs on NSE or BSE.
A market order executes immediately at the best price the order book offers; a limit order executes only at your named price or better. One buys certainty of execution, the other certainty of price.
A bull market is a sustained broad rise in share prices; a bear market is a deep, extended decline. Neither label has an official definition in India — here is how each is applied and misread.
IPO updates, market explainers and new articles from CAPITA1, where you already are.