When you open the Web sites of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), more often than not, your eyes are drawn to the quotes section and your fingers key-in the stock you want to look up. That done, do you then just exit the Web site? What are all those other links for?

Here's giving you an idea of what other information you can glean from them.

Index details

Apart from the benchmark Sensex and the Nifty, there are sector-specific indices and market-cap indices. According to market capitalisation, you have mid-cap and small-cap indices. In the BSE, click the ‘Market Indicators' tab on the homepage for details and in the NSE, it features on the right panel of the homepage.

You can look at various index movements and notice how different sectors are faring. It also helps understand whether your stock is alone in a rally/decline or part of a sector trend. The CNX 500 or the BSE 500 indices make up over 90 per cent of the total market capitalisation and can be taken as an indicator of broad market performance. The Web sites also provide historical data, if you're inclined to go back and explore how sectors fared.

Further, if you're wondering how you're supposed to know at what price-earnings multiple the Sensex or Nifty trades or what historic PEs are, look to the exchange Web sites. On the BSE Web site, the PE multiple, price-to-book ratio and dividend yield are provided for key indices such as the Sensex, Midcap, Smallcap and a few sector indices. The NSE Web site provides these details for all indices. Historical valuations help place current valuations in perspective.

Access index history and related information on the indices on the BSE Web site by selecting the option in the ‘Indices' tab and on the NSE website by choosing the ‘Indices' option in the drop-down menu of the ‘Products' tab on the respective homepages.

Reports bank

Moving on to individual stocks, the quotes page on both Web sites contains plenty of information such as announcements, corporate actions, shareholding pattern, financial results, historical prices and volumes, highs and lows. You can even get details on entities which hold more than one per cent of the share capital of a company. Both Web sites also offer peer comparisons, though these are not always exhaustive or strictly comparable.

Annual reports of companies up to three previous years can be accessed, though it varies with companies. In the BSE Web site, it appears in the ‘Filing and other info' tab once you open a stock page. The process in the NSE Web site is more roundabout. First click on the ‘Listed Corporates' tab on the homepage, then choose ‘Shareholding Pattern', select ‘Annual Reports' in the drop-down menu and finally key in the company name.

More recently, a selection of downloadable research reports by agencies such as ICRA, Fitch Ratings and CRISIL has been made available. These reports cover listed companies as well as those floating Initial Public Offers. To access reports on the BSE Web site, go to the ‘Investors' tab on the homepage and choose ‘Research Reports on Companies' in the menu. The NSE Web site has reports in the ‘Others' category under the ‘Getting Listed' tab on the homepage.

Similarly, monthly reports summarising market events and index movements, including archives, are available on both Web sites.

Graphs and tools

If you fancy yourself a technical analyst, or if youwant to test it out, the Web sites offer a few technical analysis tools. In BSE's Web site, the little ‘Technicals' option in the ‘Fundamentals' tab when you open a company's quote provides chart tools such as stochastics, oscillators, moving averages and so on. You can analyse intra-day, daily, weekly or monthly charts. The NSE Web site offers candlestick charts too. Simply go to the ‘Live Market' tab on the homepage, and choose ‘Charts' in the menu that drops down.

However, if all you want to do is to see price trends, the company quote page on both Web sites has price graph and comparison with the index for the past year. Also available are graphic representations of the stock movements of certain indices which will help you determine what is driving the index performance.

For instance, choosing ‘Sensex View' in the ‘Markets' tab of the BSE throws up a summary of how its components have moved during the day. BSE's Market Galaxy shows the most eventful stocks of the day.

Select ‘Map of the Market' in the ‘Live Markets' tab on the NSE and the Nifty stock movements show up, grouped by sector and depicted by coloured panels in a grid. There are other titbits too The BSE, for example, gives a list of stocks hitting new highs or lows or stocks seeing sudden volume spurts. The two Web sites have guides explaining basic investment concepts, the ‘dos and don'ts' when selecting brokers, rights and obligations of investors and so forth.

So next time you log on to exchange Web sites, take the time to explore. There's a lot of information packed in!

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