The market is a bazaar

Picture the stock market as a busy **bazaar**. Every company is a **shop**. Big companies are big shops; small companies are small stalls.

Each shop is split into small pieces called **shares**. People buy and sell these pieces all day, so the price tag above every shop keeps changing.

**Remember:** A company is a shop in the market bazaar. Its shares are small pieces of it, bought and sold all day.

Shops of the same trade share a street

Walk around and you notice something: shops doing the **same kind of business** stand together.

**Banks** lend money and keep deposits. **Software companies** build programs for clients. **Medicine makers** produce drugs. Each street is called a **sector**: a group of companies in the same line of business.

**Remember:** A sector is a street of companies doing the same kind of business.

Every street has a scoreboard at its gate

At the entrance of Bank Street stands a scoreboard. It is wired to every bank on the street and listens to their share prices.

Watch each price change travel up its wire. The board turns all those prices into **one number**. When the street's shops do well, the number rises; when they do poorly, it falls.

That number is a **sector index**. Bank Street's board is called **Nifty Bank**.

**Remember:** A sector index is one number that follows the share prices of one street of companies.

Three real streets and their boards

Tap Next to look inside each board.

Here are three real sector boards. Each building is drawn as wide as its share of the board.

There are boards for other streets too, such as cars, metals and everyday goods. These shares of each board are from September 2026 and change every month.

**Remember:** Each sector index has its own list of companies. Some companies take up a big part of their board.

Bigger shops move the board more

The board does not listen to every bank equally. Look at the wires: a big bank has a **thick cable**, a small bank has a **thin thread**.

This is called **weight**. Bigger companies get a bigger weight, so their price changes move the board more. Both banks rose by the same 5%, but HDFC Bank moved the board about five times as much.

**Remember:** Bigger companies carry more weight, so they move their sector index more.

Each street has its own weather

Switch between the two news days, then between the two periods.

News usually concerns one kind of business. When it arrives, it reaches the **whole street** together, while other streets may not feel it at all.

These are example days. Because each street has its own weather, each board follows its **own path**. Here is what the real boards did:

Real price changes to 30 September 2026.

**Remember:** Each sector index follows its own street's news, so different sector indices can move in different directions.

One shop next to its street

Switch between Day A and Day B.

A street board also helps you understand a **single company**. Put the company next to its own street's board and compare the two.

Example days, to show the idea.

**Remember:** Compare a company with its sector index: moving together means street news; moving alone means company news.

What a street board is for

• See an industry at a glance — One number instead of checking every company on the street.
• Compare industries — Which street is doing well, and which isn't.
• Judge one company fairly — Did it move with its street, or on its own?
• Look at more than one board — Different boards can tell different stories.

**A sector index is the scoreboard for one street of the market.**

Check — Question 1 of 8

Put each company on its street.

One street, one scoreboard

• A sector is a street of companies in the same business.
• A sector index is one number that follows that street's share prices.
• Bigger companies carry more weight, so they move their board more.
• Each street has its own weather, so sector indices can move in different directions.
• Compare a company with its board to tell street news from company news.