Journey of Nifty till 15,000

India’s benchmark equity index, Nifty crossed the psychological mark of 15,000 during Monday’s trade. People would have laughed at someone predicting in March 2020 that the market would double in less than a year. It was indeed beyond imagination! 

It took 220 days for Nifty to double itself from the lows of March 2020. In Nifty, a lot has changed over the last 25 years. A recent report by Motilal Oswal chronicles its 25-year journey.  

Nifty, which was launched in April 1996, has gained by almost 14 times in the last 25 years, giving an annualised return of 11.1 per cent since its inception. The journey has been quite eventful. The worst and the best of Nifty were witnessed in two consecutive years of 2008 and 2009. The global financial crisis of 2008 led to a 52 per cent fall in Nifty. While in the year 2009, when a stable government was formed in the centre and the economy was recovering from its low of 2008, Nifty gained as much as 76 per cent.   

It took more than 2,000 days for Nifty to cross the first 1,000 points and only 25 days to cover the latest 1,000 points to reach 15,000 from 14,000.  

Of the 50 stocks in Nifty, thirteen companies including HDFC Bank, RIL, HDFC, ITC, HUL, L&T, SBI, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Tata Steel, Grasim, Hero, and Hindalco have been a part of the index’s journey since inception. Nonetheless, the weightage has changed a lot in these years. Following is the table of the top 10 companies and their weightage in Nifty.