outperform the index - what does it mean?

[magdalena]

Hi, I have stumbled upon this:
Companies have often designed their way out of
failure by creating a product that serves the customer's needs
better than its rivals'. Design delivered the operating-system
market to Microsoft, rescued Apple Computer and made Sony an
electronics giant. A Design Council study has shown that
design-led businesses on the FTSE 100 out-performed the index
by 25%.

What does outperform the index mean?

thanks for help :)

[pyoung]

Hi, I have stumbled upon this:
Companies have often designed their way out of
failure by creating a product that serves the customer's needs
better than its rivals'. Design delivered the operating-system
market to Microsoft, rescued Apple Computer and made Sony an
electronics giant. A Design Council study has shown that
design-led businesses on the FTSE 100 out-performed the index
by 25%.

What does outperform the index mean?

thanks for help :)

Dear Magdalena:

It means 'performed better than average.' An 'index' in this sense is a method of measuring the performance of a selected section of the stock market.

I hope this is useful,

Petra