Is book value the best proxy to the value of the shares?

No. According to A6 it would be a miracle if the number that appears in the Shareholders' Equity had anything to do with the value of the shares. When we have a look at the relation among the market value and the book value of all the Spanish companies in the continuous market, we arrive at various conclusions: a) in February 2005 and December 2006 there was no company whose market value equalled its book value;