Stocks or shares are terms that are used to represent units of ownership in a company. When you purchase stocks or shares of a company, you become one of the owners of that company. For instance, if a company issues 100 shares and you purchase 50 shares, you're said to hold 50% ownership of that company.

Being a shareholder and a part-owner of a company gives you certain rights and privileges. This includes the right to vote on company matters and the opportunity to receive a part of the profits generated by it by way of dividends.

As the name implies, the stock market or the share market is a platform where stocks and shares of companies are freely traded between investors. In India, the stock market is electronic, which means that buying or selling a company's shares must be done online through a trading portal of a stockbroker. There are currently two stock exchanges - the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) - that facilitate the trading of shares in the country.

There are several factors that you need to consider when selecting a stock for your investment portfolio. This includes your investment goals, your risk tolerance, fundamental factors, stock technicals, business risk factors, economic trends and market conditions, among others.

In addition to equity shares of companies, several other instruments are traded in the stock markets. Preference shares, Differential Voting Rights (DVR) shares, debt securities like bonds and debentures, derivative contracts like futures and options, and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are the other instruments that are routinely traded.

The price of a stock is determined by a variety of different micro and macro factors. Some of the most important factors are the company's performance, earnings reports, industry risks, market conditions, macroeconomic factors, geopolitical scenarios, corporate actions, company-specific news and events and investor sentiment, among others.