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Learn how to calculate percentage change in stock price, understand its importance, and avoid common calculation mistakes.
Tracking a stock’s price movements is a fundamental aspect of investing. The percentage change in stock price reveals how much the price has increased or decreased over a certain period, helping investors assess performance and make informed decisions. Understanding how to calculate this change is essential for evaluating whether a stock is growing or losing value, and it provides valuable insights into the stock’s potential.
Percentage change in the stock market measures the difference in a stock's price over a specific period, expressed as a percentage of its original value. It is a simple yet powerful tool used by investors to track how a stock’s price fluctuates, helping them understand whether the stock has gained or lost value.
For example, if a stock's price rises from ₹100 to ₹120, the percentage change shows how much the price has increased in relation to the original price. This allows investors to easily compare performance over different time frames, whether it's from one day to the next, or over several months or years.
By calculating percentage change, investors can assess the potential growth or decline of a stock, enabling them to make informed decisions. This metric provides a clear picture of how a stock is performing relative to its starting price, which is important for both short-term traders and long-term investors alike.
Percentage change in stock prices is important for evaluating the performance of investments. Unlike absolute price changes, which only show the difference in price, percentage change provides a clearer picture by considering the stock’s original value. This allows for a comparison between stocks of different prices.
For example, a ₹10 increase in a ₹100 stock has a different impact than the same ₹10 increase in a ₹1,000 stock. Percentage change highlights this difference, making it easier to assess the growth or decline of a stock.
This metric is often used to track market trends and compare the performance of different stocks. It provides a measure of how much a stock has increased or decreased in value over a given period, offering insights into its historical price movement.
To calculate the percentage change in a stock’s price, the formula is:
Percentage Change = ((New Price – Old Price) / Old Price) x 100
Where:
New Price is the stock's most recent price (the current price)
Old Price is the stock's price at the starting point (this could be from the previous day, week, month, or any other time period being compared)
This formula helps in determining the percentage difference between the two prices, showing how much the stock price has increased or decreased.
By applying this calculation, investors can assess the performance of a stock across different time periods.
Here is a simple breakdown of how to calculate percentage change in stock prices:
Identify the old price – This is the stock price at the starting point, like the previous day, week, or year
Identify the new price – This is the current stock price
Subtract the old price from the new price – This gives the absolute change in price
Divide the result by the old price – This calculates the proportional change
Multiply by 100 – This converts the result into a percentage
By following these steps, percentage change can be calculated and this helps in understanding how a stock has moved in relation to its original value.
To understand how to calculate the percentage change in stock price, here are a couple of simple examples.
Imagine a stock’s price was ₹100 yesterday and has risen to ₹120 today. To calculate the percentage change:
Percentage Change = ((120 – 100) / 100) x 100
Percentage Change = (20 / 100) x 100
Percentage Change = 20%
This means the stock price has increased by 20%.
If a stock’s price was ₹150 and later declined to ₹120, the percentage change is calculated as follows
Percentage Change = ((120 – 150) / 150) x 100
Percentage Change = (-30 / 150) x 100
Percentage Change = -20%
This indicates a 20% decrease in the stock price.
These examples show how percentage change provides a clear understanding of how much a stock has gained or lost in value over a given period, making it a valuable tool for any investor.
When analysing stock price movements, it is important to understand the difference between percentage change and absolute price change. Both metrics provide valuable information, but they offer insights in different ways.
Absolute Price Change refers to the simple difference between the new and old stock prices. For example, if a stock price increases from ₹100 to ₹120, the absolute price change is ₹20. While this indicates the absolute change in the stock’s price, it does not take the original price into account.
Percentage Change gives a more meaningful perspective by expressing the price movement as a percentage of the original price. In the same example, the percentage change would be 20%. This helps investors understand the relative size of the change in relation to the stock’s starting value.
The key difference is that absolute price change only shows the numerical difference, while percentage change provides a clearer picture of the stock’s performance in relative terms, making it easier to compare movements across stocks of different prices.
For example, a ₹20 change in a ₹100 stock is a 20% change, but the same ₹20 change in a ₹1,000 stock would be only a 2% change, which offers an understanding of the stock’s real movement.
A stock percentage change calculator is a digital tool used to compute the percentage movement between two stock prices. Instead of manually applying the formula, the old and new prices are entered into the calculator, which then generates the percentage change automatically.
Such calculators are commonly used to review daily price movements, compare multiple stocks, or analyse performance over selected time periods. By automating the calculation process, they reduce the likelihood of manual errors and provide a consistent method for assessing price changes across different securities.
Here are some common mistakes to avoid when calculating percentage change:
It is important to use the correct starting and ending prices to maintain accuracy in percentage change calculations.
Omitting this step will result in a decimal outcome instead of a percentage, leading to confusion.
When comparing multiple stocks, the same time period should be used to maintain consistency and accuracy in the analysis.
An increase in stock price should result in a positive percentage change, while a decrease should be negative.
Percentage change reflects only the change in stock price and does not include dividends, which can affect overall returns.
Avoid rounding numbers too early, as this can lead to inaccuracies in the final result.
Here are some limitations of using percentage change in stock prices:
A stock might show a large percentage change, but this doesn't account for how much its price fluctuates within a short period.
Percentage changes are less meaningful when comparing stocks with vastly different prices, as the same absolute price change represents different percentages.
Percentage change only shows the price movement and doesn’t take dividends or other returns into account.
Percentage change does not consider external factors, such as news or market sentiment, which can influence a stock’s price in the short term.
Focusing solely on percentage change over short periods may miss important long-term trends and underlying factors that impact a stock’s true value.
This content is for informational purposes only and the same should not be construed as investment advice. Bajaj Finserv Direct Limited shall not be liable or responsible for any investment decision that you may take based on this content.
The change percentage in stocks measures the difference in a stock's price over a specific period, expressed as a percentage of its original price. It helps investors understand how much a stock has gained or lost in value, providing a clearer picture of performance.
Stock percentage change updates in real-time during market hours, reflecting every change in price. After market hours, it remains static until the next trading session, making it useful for tracking daily fluctuations and trends.
Yes, percentage change can be negative if a stock’s price falls. A decrease in price from the original value results in a negative percentage change, indicating a loss in the stock's value.
The percentage change formula remains the same for both intraday and long-term stocks. However, intraday changes are more volatile and short-term, while long-term percentage changes reflect broader market trends and the stock's overall growth or decline.
No, percentage change only accounts for changes in a stock's price. Dividends are treated as separate components of return and are not included in price-based percentage change calculations. When evaluating total return, dividend income is assessed independently from price movement.
Percentage change is commonly calculated using the closing price, as it reflects the final value of a stock at the end of a trading day. This provides a consistent basis for measuring daily price movements.
With a Postgraduate degree in Global Financial Markets from the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute, Nupur has over 8 years of experience in the financial markets, specializing in investments, stock market operations, and project management. She has contributed to process improvements, cross-functional initiatives & content development across investment products. She bridges investment strategy with execution, blending content insight, operational efficiency, and collaborative execution to deliver impactful outcomes.
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