Indian Indices

An index is a basket of shares whose combined value is tracked as a single number. Instead of following hundreds of companies one by one, you watch one level that summarises how that part of the market is doing — the whole market, a sector such as banking or IT, or a size band such as midcap.

Both are headline benchmarks for the Indian market, but they are run by different exchanges and hold a different number of companies. NIFTY 50 is the National Stock Exchange benchmark of 50 large companies; SENSEX is the BSE benchmark of 30. They usually move in the same direction, with small differences that come from their different constituents and weights.

Day Change is the difference between the index level right now and its previous close, in points. Change Percent expresses that same move as a percentage of the previous close, which is the fairer way to compare one index against another because it is not affected by how large the index level itself is. Green means the index is above its previous close, red means below.

India VIX measures the volatility the market expects in the NIFTY over the next 30 days, calculated from index option prices. A rising VIX usually signals nervousness and wider expected swings; a falling VIX suggests the market expects calmer conditions.

You cannot buy an index itself, but you can take exposure to one — through index funds and ETFs that track it, or through index futures and options for traders. Open a free Demat and trading account with Alice Blue to invest in index funds and ETFs or trade index derivatives.

Each row carries its own date and time stamp for the last level received from the feed, so you can always see how recent a number is. Data on this page is for informational purposes only — see the disclaimer under the table.