A stock is a security that represents an ownership interest in a corporation’s equity, and a piece of the company's assets and earnings.

The stock’s carries the rights to vote on important matters of the corporation including who serves on the board of directors. If the company distributes profits, shareholders normally receive them in the form of dividends.

A method of registering securities, electronically, eliminating the need for physical certificates. In Colombia, the entity that renders this service is the Centralized Deposit of Securities named Deceval S.A., by means of this system, the risk is eliminated at the same time that represents the handling of physical titles for the possessors, that makes transactions more agile in the secondary market and facilitates the collection of dividends.

The depository’s certificate is an informative document nonnegotiable, by which is credited the securities values written down in to subscribers account. The deposit certificate contains among others, the number account assigned by Deceval and with which is identified investors investments registries before the Deposit, the species that describes and identifies the title value, and the balance that amounts the shares acquired. The deposit certificate is not transferable, nor is representative of the value in deposited.

A dividend is the payment designated by the Board of Directors to be distributed pro rata among the shares outstanding. For preferred shares, the dividend is usually a fixed amount. For common shares, the dividend varies with the fortunes of the company and the amount of cash on hand, and may be omitted if business is poor or if the directors determine to withhold earnings to invest them. Shareholders’ Meeting also decides the frequency and form of payment.

Distribution of earnings to shareholders may be in the form of cash or stock in accordance with the payments designated by the Annual Shareholders’ Meeting. If the form is accorded in money, for each share possessed the shareholder will receive certain amount of money, if the distribution is in the form of stock rather than cash, the stock dividend may be additional shares in the company, or it may be shares in a subsidiary being spun off to shareholders.

A corporation owned collectively by broker-dealers and banks responsible for holding securities owned by its shareholders and their clients and for arranging the receipt, delivery, and monetary settlement of securities transactions. Once securities are on deposit, further transfers within the system can be accomplished electronically at low cost.

The Centralized Deposit of Securities of Colombia – DECEVAL S.A.- is the entity that receives in deposit the securities for its management and custody, contributing with the operations that the agents of the market realized, making them more agile, reducing costs, and risks associated to the physical handling by means of a computerized system of high technology and security.

Is an agent appointed for a Tender or Exchange Offer who accepts certificates from shareholders, processes them and assures that the appropriate cash or new securities are properly remitted to the tendering party.

The Shareholders’ Meeting is the meeting held by the shareholders of a company normally once a year, at which the managers of a company report to the shareholders on the year's results, the board members election, and the approval of distributions in accordance with the earnings of the period.

Is a corporation, government, or other authority, that puts financial assets in the marketplace.

Normally the received dividends are exempted of taxes, since this tax has already been cancelled previously by the issuer society. Each issuer reports to its shareholders at the time of approving the payment of dividends, the percentage that is not taxed of the ones paid. Additionally, the originating income of the purchase and sale of stocks, do not constitute rent nor occasional gain for those who receive them.

Shares listed on the Colombian Stock Exchange are traded through the Stock System of Trading, which is based on the generation of operations through bid and ask offers of compatible supplies of purchase and sale. Negotiations will be completed as long as one better bid and ask does not exist, after passed the time of assimilation (20 seconds for operations of purchase or sale and 1 minute for crossed operations). The schedule of the stock exchange is from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. local time.

    · Nominal Quotation: Is the preliminary estimation of the price at which a financial instrument

      might be created. Indicative prices are quoted to customers for planning or valuation

      purposes, but they do not form the basis for an actual transaction without further discussion.

    · Book Value: the book value of a stock is determined by adding up all of a company's assets

      and then deducting all of its debt and liabilities, including the liquidation price of any

      preferred issues. This sum is then divided by the number of common shares outstanding

      and the result is book value per common share. The book value of a company's assets or of

      a security may have little relationship to the market value.

    · Market Value: What investors believe a firm is worth; calculated by multiplying the number

      of shares outstanding by the current market price of a firm's shares.

Is the last reported price at which the share or bond sold, or the current quote.

Also denominated book value, obtained by dividing the total shareholders’ equity between the shares outstanding.

Also known as the rate of return in stocks and bonds, the amount of money returned to investors on their investments from dividends or the appraisal of the price of the stock.

When investing is important to consider:

    · Risk: which is the probability of obtaining a result different from initially expected.

    · Yield: rate of return generated by an investment in its different forms:

      interests, dividends, etc., depending on the investment type.

    · Liquidity: is the invested resources disposition.

    · Term: Required time to dispose of the money invested.

   ·  Colombian Stock Exchange –IGBC- that reflects the variations on stocks. It is defined as the

      stock-exchange ordinary market index of Colombian Stock Exchange. It is the most

      representative, agile, and opportune instrument to evaluate the evolution and tendency of the

      stock market.

   ·  Stock Exchange Index –IBA- measures the negotiability or liquidity of a share and it is

      determined by the frequency of negotiation and the average volume trading. It classifies

      a share of high, medium, low and minimum stock exchange.

   ·  Dividend Yield indicates the yield represented as the return on a share held over the

      past 12 months. It represents annual dividends divided by the current stock price.

Is a measurement of the liquidity degree that has a share in the stock market.