What is Ask Price?
Ask price is the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for a security. It is also known as the offer price or asking price, or simply ‘ask’. Thus ask price is the best quote by a trader willing to sell the share.
Along with the price, the ask quote will generally also stipulate the amount of the security willing to be sold at that price i.e. the ask quantity.
Ask is one part of the trade; other being ‘bid’. Thus in bid ask, ask price is in contrast to the bid price. The difference between the two is called the bid/ask spread.
E.g. For a stock like Infosys, the ask price on NSE is Rs. 3,909.00, as can be inferred from the below snapshot of the orderbook:
Order Book of Infosys (on NSE on 16th Oct 2014 12.30PM)
| Buy Qty. | Buy Price | Sell Price | Sell Qty. |
| 40 | 3,908.95 | 3,909.00 | 4 |
| 22 | 3,908.80 | 3,909.05 | 18 |
| 1 | 3,908.75 | 3,909.50 | 1 |
| 19 | 3,908.60 | 3,909.75 | 6 |
| 23 | 3,908.55 | 3,910.00 | 10 |
| 50,352 | Total Quantity | 64,853 | |
The bid price is Rs. 3,908.95 while bid-ask spread is 5 paise, which is the minimum as per exchange regulations. The ask quantity at Rs. 3,909.00 is 4 shares.