Mumbai, Jan 2 (IANS) BSE Limited (BSE), Asia’s oldest stock exchange, on Friday marked a historic milestone with the celebration of 40 years of Sensex, commemorating four decades of India’s most widely tracked equity benchmark and a symbol of the country’s capital market evolution for the common man.
Launched in 1986, Sensex, India’s first stock market index, is designed to reflect the broader Indian equity market, with 30 constituents comprising of India’s leading and liquid companies across diverse sectors such as financial services, technology, energy, FMCG, commodities, healthcare, industrials, among others.
Representing nearly 40 per cent of the nation’s market capitalisation, it serves as a benchmark for India’s economic strength and equity market performance.
Highlighting the significance of the milestone, Sundararaman Ramamurthy, Managing Director and CEO, BSE, said that it is not just a celebration of an index, but a celebration of India’s capital market journey.
“From a closed market to one of the most technology-driven and investor-centric ecosystems globally, the SENSEX has chronicled India’s growth story with consistency and trustworthiness. As India moves towards Viksit Bharat, we at BSE remain committed to meet the dynamic market requirements and reflect the changing economic landscape,” Ramamurthy said at an event here.
Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Chairman, SEBI, said that over the last four decades, “the Sensex has stood the test of time as a robust market indicator, mirroring India’s economic transformation and the growing maturity of our capital markets.”
Launched in 1986, it was calculated using a market-cap-weighted methodology of 30 component stocks representing large, well-established, and financially sound companies across key sectors.
Since September 1, 2003, the Sensex has been calculated on a free-float (float-adjusted) market-cap methodology. The free-float, market-cap-weighted methodology is a widely followed index construction upon which, majority of global equity indices are based.
The Sensex is among India’s most tracked benchmarks, with over 20 Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and index funds managing assets worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore. It also features one of the world’s most active index options contracts and ranks as the fastest-growing index derivatives contract for the last two years.
Since inception, the Sensex has delivered a compounded annualised growth rate (CAGR) of 13.4 per cent, closely mirroring India’s nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth of nearly 13 per cent during the period.
—IANS
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