India's flagship equity index Nifty50 completed 25 years of its journey on April 22. The equity barometer came into existence on April 22, 1996, and since then has seen many changes in its components, indicating the changing business-economic dynamics of the country.

Nifty has come a long way after it was launched in April 1996, when it traded at 1,107, with the base year of November 1995 set as 1,000 or the first time in history, Nifty closed above the psychological mark of 15,000 on February 8, 2021.

Nifty50 is a benchmark equity index and it shows the weighted average of India's top 50 companies, across sectors, that are listed on NSE. With time, many components of the index exit the group while the new ones enter.

Over the years, the sectoral representation of the Nifty has also changed tremendously and remains in consonance with the changes in the underlying economy. 

Of the 50 stocks in the Nifty Index, 13 companies – HDFC Bank, RIL, HDFC, ITC, HUL, L&T, SBI, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Tata Steel, Grasim, Hero, and Hindalco – have been a part of the index’s journey since inception.

"It saw the initial phase of political instability over 1996–98; since then, it has seen and overcome various challenges – such as the Asian Financial Crisis, the dot com bubble, the global financial crisis (GFC), the taper tantrum, and the COVID pandemic – all of which have shaped it into the economic powerhouse it is today."

Nifty’s journey from 1,107 to 2,000 was the most excruciating – as it took a total of 2,167 trading days (almost 8.7 years). The move from 6,000 to 7,000 was also prolonged (1,589 trading days or 6.5 years) as the markets took time to recover from the long phase of correction in the aftermath of the GFC in 2008. On the other hand, the move from 14,000 to 15,000 has been the quickest – covered over just 25 days.

Source & Courtesy: moneycontrol.com