Which stock index became the leading symbol of the dot-com stock-market crash?

The Nasdaq Composite became the leading symbol of the dot-com stock-market crash.

The index includes thousands of companies listed on the Nasdaq exchange and has a strong concentration in technology and growth-oriented businesses. That composition made it especially sensitive to the extraordinary enthusiasm surrounding internet, software, telecommunications, and other technology shares in the late 1990s.

After reaching a closing high of 5,048.62 on March 10, 2000, the Nasdaq Composite fell dramatically during the subsequent bear market. Many companies associated with the dot-com boom lost most of their market value, while some failed entirely. The index’s decline became the clearest numerical representation of the technology bubble bursting.

The Nasdaq Composite is not the same as the Nasdaq-100. The Composite covers all domestic and international common stocks listed on Nasdaq, while the Nasdaq-100 tracks 100 large non-financial Nasdaq-listed companies. Both are technology-heavy, but they are separate indexes.