All-Ordinaries (Allords/ASX) Index Online

The Australian All Ordinaries Index, commonly referred to as "All Ords," tracks the performance of the 500 largest companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) based on market capitalisation.^[1]

The index was developed with a base value of 500 as of 1979 and is calculated by ASX/S&P.^[2] The index closed at an all-time monthly high of 7075 in February 2020 before falling to 5272 as of 9 April 2020, in line with the drop in global stock prices due to the coronavirus pandemic.^[3]

Notable All Ordinaries Benchmarks

The index hit what was then an all-time high of 2305 on 20 September 1987 before plunging by nearly 50% to about 1200 in early 1988. It larged tracked the drop in the S&P 500 index in the U.S. following the stock market crash in October 1987, although the drop in Australian stock prices was much steeper.^[4]

While it did recover over the next year or two, climbing back above 1700 in the fall of 1989, the index fell back again to the 1200 range in late 1990 and early 1991. The All Ords rebounded the rest of that year and in the first half of 1992, climbing above 1600 before falling back to 1400 in November 1992.^[4]

The index then jumped more than 60% over the next year and a half, reaching 2263 at the end of January 1994. The index trended downward most of 1994, bottoming out around 1850 in early 1995. But over the next seven years the index nearly doubled, topping out at about 3400 in early 2002. It was then that global stocks fell following the collapse of the "dot com" bubble in U.S. tech and internet stocks as well as the terrorist attacks on the U.S. in September 2001. The index bottomed out at about 2700 in March 2003, a decline of more than 20%.^[4]

That low point set the stage for the index's biggest rally ever. Between March 2003 and October 2007, the index more than doubled, reaching a then-high of 6760 in October 2007 at the outset of the global financial crisis, after which the index plunged by more than 50% to 3100 in March of 2009. That marked the beginning of the long bull market that was to last until the coronavirus hit in early 2020, but not before more than doubling to more than 7000.^[4]

As of March 2020, the 500 companies in the index accounted for about 87% of the total Australian equity market.

Top Companies In The All Ordinaries Index

The 10 largest "kangaroos" in the index based on market cap are as follows:^[5]

1. CSL Limited
2. Commonwealth Bank
3. BHP Group Limited
4. Westpac Banking Corp
5. National Australia Bank
6. ANZ Banking Group Limited
7. Woolworths Group Limited
8. Wesfarmers Limited
9. Telstra Corp.
10. Macquarie Group Limited

Summary

The Australian All Ordinaries Index tracks the performance of the 500 largest companies on the ASX, based on market capitalisation. The index was developed and is managed by ASX/S&P.