Markets
Nifty500 Quality 50
Nifty500 Quality 50 is an NSE strategy and factor index of 50 stocks. Since 2005 it has compounded 16.5% a year with dividends reinvested; over the past year it fell 1.2%. Its deepest fall was 54%, from Jan 2008 to Nov 2008, and it took 21 months from that high to a new one.
Written for anyone who holds, tracks or is thinking of buying Nifty500 Quality 50. Data to 14 Oct 2026.
- Trend
- Downtrend since Sep 2026
- Momentum
- 60th of 133 markets, by rank
- Below its high
- 8.5% total return
- P/E
- 24.9 67th percentile
- 1 year
- −1.2% total return
- 5 years
- 9.3% a year
- 10 years
- 13.0% a year
- Since 2005
- 16.5% a year
- Volatility
- 16.0% past year; usual 15%
NSE launched Nifty500 Quality 50 in Dec 2024. Figures before that use NSE's back-calculated history: today's rules applied to the past, chosen with that past in view. Charts mark the launch.
Returns
Total return counts dividends reinvested; price return does not. Since 2005, dividends added about 1.9 percentage points a year. Returns over more than a year are a year, compounded.
Nifty500 Quality 50: growth of 100
Weekly, from Apr 2005, log scale: equal slopes are equal rates of growth. Drag the range below the chart to start anywhere; both lines restart at 100.
How to read it. The gap between the two lines is what dividends were worth. It widens slowly and never closes.
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To 14 Oct 2026. Before any fund cost or tax.
| Period | Total return | Price return | Dividends added | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | −2.9% | −3.0% | +0.1 pts | |
| 3 months | −4.7% | −5.0% | +0.4 pts | |
| 6 months | +1.4% | +0.7% | +0.7 pts | |
| This year | −0.1% | −1.1% | +1.0 pts | |
| 1 year | −1.2% | −2.4% | +1.2 pts | |
| 3 years, a year | +11.8% | +10.5% | +1.3 pts | |
| 5 years, a year | +9.3% | +7.9% | +1.4 pts | |
| 10 years, a year | +13.0% | +11.4% | +1.6 pts | |
| 15 years, a year | +15.5% | +13.8% | +1.8 pts | |
| 20 years, a year | +15.0% | +13.1% | +1.8 pts | |
| Since Apr 2005, a year | +16.5% | +14.6% | +1.9 pts |
Year by year
15 of the 20 full calendar years since 2006 ended higher. 14 of them had a fall of 10% or more from a peak somewhere inside the year, so even good years are rarely smooth.
Nifty500 Quality 50: each calendar year
The worst fall is the largest drop from a peak within the year, with the previous year-end as the first peak (the convention of J.P. Morgan's Guide to the Markets). Total return, %.
| Year | Total return | Price return | Dividends | Worst fall in the year | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 so far | −0.1% | −1.1% | +1.0 pts | −13.1% | |
| 2025 | −2.6% | −3.7% | +1.2 pts | −19.5% | |
| 2024 | +23.3% | +22.0% | +1.3 pts | −9.9% | |
| 2023 | +42.0% | +40.3% | +1.6 pts | −8.4% | |
| 2022 | −2.8% | −4.6% | +1.8 pts | −18.1% | |
| 2021 | +29.9% | +27.7% | +2.2 pts | −11.1% | |
| 2020 | +27.6% | +25.7% | +1.9 pts | −31.3% | |
| 2019 | +1.8% | +0.1% | +1.7 pts | −13.5% | |
| 2018 | −2.4% | −4.0% | +1.7 pts | −17.7% | |
| 2017 | +33.6% | +31.6% | +2.0 pts | −4.3% | |
| 2016 | +0.8% | −1.1% | +1.8 pts | −12.5% | |
| 2015 | +8.6% | +7.1% | +1.5 pts | −10.1% | |
| 2014 | +48.6% | +46.1% | +2.4 pts | −6.4% | |
| 2013 | +18.0% | +16.1% | +1.9 pts | −11.0% | |
| 2012 | +35.2% | +32.7% | +2.4 pts | −7.2% | |
| 2011 | −19.2% | −20.6% | +1.4 pts | −21.5% | |
| 2010 | +26.2% | +24.0% | +2.1 pts | −9.1% | |
| 2009 | +121.4% | +117.5% | +4.0 pts | −11.4% | |
| 2008 | −48.8% | −49.8% | +1.0 pts | −53.6% | |
| 2007 | +42.1% | +39.6% | +2.5 pts | −14.0% | |
| 2006 | +25.7% | +23.2% | +2.4 pts | −34.1% |
The falls
Every fall of 10% or more from a high, deepest first. The worst, 54%, took 11 months to reach bottom and 10 months more to climb back. Today it is 8.5% below its high.
Nifty500 Quality 50: how far below its previous high
Weekly, the week's lowest close against the highest close before it, total return, %.
How to read it. Zero is a new high. The depth of each dip is what a holder sat through; its width is how long getting back took.
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Total return, closing prices. A fall ends when the index closes at or above the high it fell from. Calendar time.
| Fall | From the high of | To the low of | Falling for | Recovering for | Back at the high | High to high |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| −53.6% | 4 Jan 2008 | 20 Nov 2008 | 11 months | 10 months | 22 Sept 2009 | 21 months |
| −34.6% | 27 Aug 2018 | 23 Mar 2020 | 19 months | 7 months | 13 Oct 2020 | 2.1 years |
| −34.1% | 10 May 2006 | 14 Jun 2006 | 35 days | 8 months | 6 Feb 2007 | 9 months |
| −23.6% | 10 Nov 2010 | 20 Dec 2011 | 13 months | 9 months | 28 Sept 2012 | 23 months |
| −23.0% | 1 Oct 2024 | 28 Feb 2025 | 5 months | +19% off the low | not yet | 20 months since the low |
| −20.3% | 14 Oct 2021 | 20 Jun 2022 | 8 months | 12 months | 20 Jun 2023 | 20 months |
| −14.2% | 4 Oct 2005 | 28 Oct 2005 | 24 days | 31 days | 28 Nov 2005 | 55 days |
| −14.0% | 7 Feb 2007 | 7 Mar 2007 | 28 days | 3 months | 28 May 2007 | 4 months |
| −12.9% | 19 Aug 2015 | 29 Feb 2016 | 6 months | 4 months | 1 Jul 2016 | 10 months |
| −12.5% | 8 Sept 2016 | 26 Dec 2016 | 4 months | 3 months | 16 Mar 2017 | 6 months |
What holding it was like
From every day in its history, what holding Nifty500 Quality 50 for a fixed span would have returned a year. Over five years the middle outcome was 16.6% a year; the worst −0.6% and the best 31.7%; no five-year span lost money.
Total return a year, %, over every span of that length starting on any session. Spans overlap, so 'separate spans' is how many non-overlapping ones the history holds: the longer the span, the fewer truly independent readings behind each figure.
| Held for | Worst | 1 in 10 worse than | Middle | 1 in 10 better than | Best | Spans that lost | Separate spans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | −50.9% | −5.5% | +14.6% | +53.0% | +146.1% | 21% | 21.5 |
| 3 years | −9.5% | +7.1% | +17.0% | +26.2% | +41.3% | 3% | 7.2 |
| 5 years | −0.6% | +9.6% | +16.6% | +23.2% | +31.7% | 0% | 4.3 |
| 7 years | +9.6% | +12.2% | +15.8% | +19.5% | +30.3% | 0% | 3.1 |
| 10 years | +9.1% | +13.3% | +16.0% | +19.5% | +23.6% | 0% | 2.2 |
Rolling returns, a year
Weekly: the return a year over the 3 and 5 years to each date, total return, %.
How to read it. Each point is what someone who bought 3 or 5 years earlier had earned a year by then. The lows mark the worst times to have bought.
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₹10,000 on the first session of every month into the index itself, from January of each year to 14 Oct 2026. Before any fund cost or tax; an index fund would have returned a little less. Of SIPs that ran five years or more, the weakest started in 2021 (+11.3% a year).
| Started in January | Months | Put in | Worth now | Multiple | Return a year (XIRR) | More |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 22 | ₹2,20,000 | ₹2,22,126 | 1.01× | +1.1% | |
| 2024 | 34 | ₹3,40,000 | ₹3,48,334 | 1.02× | +1.7% | |
| 2023 | 46 | ₹4,60,000 | ₹5,38,013 | 1.17× | +8.3% | |
| 2022 | 58 | ₹5,80,000 | ₹7,45,348 | 1.29× | +10.5% | |
| 2021 | 70 | ₹7,00,000 | ₹9,71,023 | 1.39× | +11.3% | |
| 2020 | 82 | ₹8,20,000 | ₹13,07,525 | 1.59× | +13.6% | |
| 2019 | 94 | ₹9,40,000 | ₹16,46,503 | 1.75× | +14.1% | |
| 2018 | 106 | ₹10,60,000 | ₹19,73,162 | 1.86× | +13.8% | |
| 2017 | 118 | ₹11,80,000 | ₹23,59,310 | 2.00× | +13.6% | |
| 2016 | 130 | ₹13,00,000 | ₹27,90,364 | 2.15× | +13.5% | |
| 2015 | 142 | ₹14,20,000 | ₹32,38,892 | 2.28× | +13.3% | |
| 2014 | 154 | ₹15,40,000 | ₹38,46,384 | 2.50× | +13.4% | |
| 2013 | 166 | ₹16,60,000 | ₹46,55,888 | 2.80× | +13.9% | |
| 2012 | 178 | ₹17,80,000 | ₹56,17,234 | 3.16× | +14.3% | |
| 2011 | 190 | ₹19,00,000 | ₹66,22,834 | 3.49× | +14.4% | |
| 2010 | 202 | ₹20,20,000 | ₹76,81,625 | 3.80× | +14.4% | |
| 2009 | 214 | ₹21,40,000 | ₹95,26,659 | 4.45× | +15.0% | |
| 2008 | 226 | ₹22,60,000 | ₹1,13,64,847 | 5.03× | +15.2% | |
| 2007 | 238 | ₹23,80,000 | ₹1,30,58,970 | 5.49× | +15.1% | |
| 2006 | 250 | ₹25,00,000 | ₹1,51,24,955 | 6.05× | +15.1% |
How bumpy
Volatility is how widely daily returns swing, scaled to a year. Over the past year it was 16.0%, against a usual 15.2% for this index. 65% of months ended higher, and 125 days moved 3% or more either way.
Nifty500 Quality 50: volatility over the past year
Weekly: standard deviation of daily total returns over the past 252 sessions, annualised, %.
How to read it. Spikes come with sell-offs; calm stretches come with rising markets. High readings rarely last.
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| Worst days | Return |
|---|---|
| 23 Mar 2020 | −11.3% |
| 21 Jan 2008 | −8.0% |
| 12 Mar 2020 | −7.4% |
| 18 May 2006 | −7.3% |
| 24 Oct 2008 | −7.2% |
| Best days | Return |
|---|---|
| 18 May 2009 | +12.9% |
| 7 Apr 2020 | +7.5% |
| 15 Jun 2006 | +7.4% |
| 25 Jan 2008 | +6.7% |
| 20 Mar 2020 | +6.4% |
| Worst months | Return |
|---|---|
| Oct 2008 | −22.1% |
| Mar 2020 | −17.2% |
| Jan 2008 | −17.1% |
| Jun 2008 | −14.8% |
| May 2006 | −14.0% |
| Best months | Return |
|---|---|
| May 2009 | +25.5% |
| Jul 2009 | +17.2% |
| Apr 2026 | +16.2% |
| Apr 2009 | +13.7% |
| Apr 2020 | +12.7% |
Valuation
NSE's own price-to-earnings, price-to-book and dividend yield, at each month-end since Aug 2026. Today's P/E of 24.9 is in the middle of its range since NSE moved to consolidated earnings in March 2021. Price to book, 7.77, is in the middle of its range over the full history.
Price to earnings
Month-ends, as NSE publishes them.
How to read it. Higher is dearer. Before March 2021 NSE used standalone earnings, so readings on either side of the line are not strictly comparable.
Price to earnings. Line chart, Aug 2026 to Oct 2026. Price to earnings: latest 24.9×, range 24.5× to 26.6×.
Price to book
Month-ends, as NSE publishes them.
How to read it. Higher is dearer. Book value has no accounting break, so the whole history compares.
Price to book. Line chart, Aug 2026 to Oct 2026. Price to book: latest 7.77×, range 7.60× to 8.61×.
Today is 14 Oct 2026; the history is month-ends. A percentile is the share of month-ends at or below today's reading: 90 means dearer than nine months in ten (for dividend yield, the reverse).
| Today | Percentile, full history | Last 10 years | Since March 2021 | Median | Low | High | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price to earnings | 24.94 | 67 | – | – | 24.94 | 24.49 | 26.64 |
| Price to book | 7.77 | 67 | – | – | 7.77 | 7.60 | 8.61 |
| Dividend yield, % | 1.98 | 100 | – | – | 1.51 | 1.36 | 1.98 |
What it holds
50 stocks as NSE lists them today. The ten largest make up 39.4% of the index. It is weighted by tilt weighted and rebalanced twice a year.
Sector weights
NSE's factsheet, 30 Sept 2026. % of the index.
How to read it. Sectors as NSE classifies them. A sector index of one industry has no split to show.
Sector weights. Bar chart of 13 items. Weight, %: highest Information Technology at 20.5%, lowest Healthcare at 1.0%.
NSE's factsheet, 30 Sept 2026. NSE publishes the weights of the ten largest members only.
| Largest holdings | Weight | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. | 5.21% |
| 2 | Infosys Ltd. | 5.04% |
| 3 | Bharat Electronics Ltd. | 4.30% |
| 4 | Bajaj Auto Ltd. | 3.98% |
| 5 | BSE Ltd. | 3.85% |
| 6 | Coal India Ltd. | 3.75% |
| 7 | Britannia Industries Ltd. | 3.63% |
| 8 | Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd. | 3.62% |
| 9 | Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd. | 3.15% |
| 10 | Solar Industries India Ltd. | 2.84% |
NSE's constituent list for Nifty500 Quality 50, as seen on 14 Oct 2026. NSE changes members at each rebalance.
| Member | Industry | NSE symbol | More |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABB India Ltd. | Capital Goods | ABB | |
| Action Construction Equipment Ltd. | Capital Goods | ACE | |
| Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd. | Financial Services | ABSLAMC | |
| Anand Rathi Wealth Ltd. | Financial Services | ANANDRATHI | |
| BLS International Services Ltd. | Consumer Services | BLS | |
| BSE Ltd. | Financial Services | BSE | |
| Bajaj Auto Ltd. | Automobile and Auto Components | BAJAJ-AUTO | |
| Bharat Electronics Ltd. | Capital Goods | BEL | |
| Britannia Industries Ltd. | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | BRITANNIA | |
| CG Power and Industrial Solutions Ltd. | Capital Goods | CGPOWER | |
| Castrol India Ltd. | Oil Gas & Consumable Fuels | CASTROLIND | |
| Central Depository Services (India) Ltd. | Financial Services | CDSL | |
| Coal India Ltd. | Oil Gas & Consumable Fuels | COALINDIA | |
| Colgate Palmolive (India) Ltd. | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | COLPAL | |
| Computer Age Management Services Ltd. | Financial Services | CAMS | |
| Dixon Technologies (India) Ltd. | Consumer Durables | DIXON | |
| Emami Ltd. | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | EMAMILTD | |
| Force Motors Ltd. | Automobile and Auto Components | FORCEMOT | |
| GE Vernova T&D India Ltd. | Capital Goods | GVT&D | |
| Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. | Capital Goods | GRSE | |
| Gillette India Ltd. | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | GILLETTE | |
| HDFC Asset Management Company Ltd. | Financial Services | HDFCAMC | |
| Indiamart Intermesh Ltd. | Consumer Services | INDIAMART | |
| Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. | Financial Services | IEX | |
| Indian Railway Catering And Tourism Corporation Ltd. | Consumer Services | IRCTC | |
| Infosys Ltd. | Information Technology | INFY | |
| JSW Dulux Ltd. | Consumer Durables | JSWDULUX | |
| KPIT Technologies Ltd. | Information Technology | KPITTECH | |
| L&T Technology Services Ltd. | Information Technology | LTTS | |
| LTM Ltd. | Information Technology | LTM | |
| Marico Ltd. | Fast Moving Consumer Goods | MARICO | |
| Mazagoan Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. | Capital Goods | MAZDOCK | |
| Motherson Sumi Wiring India Ltd. | Automobile and Auto Components | MSUMI | |
| Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd. | Financial Services | MOTILALOFS | |
| NATCO Pharma Ltd. | Healthcare | NATCOPHARM | |
| NMDC Ltd. | Metals & Mining | NMDC | |
| National Aluminium Co. Ltd. | Metals & Mining | NATIONALUM | |
| Nippon Life India Asset Management Ltd. | Financial Services | NAM-INDIA | |
| Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd. | Information Technology | OFSS | |
| Page Industries Ltd. | Textiles | PAGEIND | |
| Persistent Systems Ltd. | Information Technology | PERSISTENT | |
| Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd. | Capital Goods | SCHNEIDER | |
| Solar Industries India Ltd. | Chemicals | SOLARINDS | |
| Sonata Software Ltd. | Information Technology | SONATSOFTW | |
| Suzlon Energy Ltd. | Capital Goods | SUZLON | |
| Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. | Information Technology | TCS | |
| Tata Elxsi Ltd. | Information Technology | TATAELXSI | |
| Triveni Turbine Ltd. | Capital Goods | TRITURBINE | |
| Zen Technologies Ltd. | Capital Goods | ZENTEC | |
| eClerx Services Ltd. | Services | ECLERX |
Against the Nifty 500
How Nifty500 Quality 50 has done against the broad market it is part of. Over 21 years it beat the Nifty 500 by 2.7 percentage points a year, and was ahead in 11 of 20 calendar years.
Relative strength
Weekly: Nifty500 Quality 50's total return divided by the Nifty 500's, 100 at the start of the range shown.
How to read it. Rising: Nifty500 Quality 50 is outrunning the Nifty 500. Falling: it is lagging. The level means nothing; the direction is the reading.
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Three-year lead or lag
Weekly: Nifty500 Quality 50's return a year over the past three years minus the Nifty 500's, percentage points.
How to read it. Above zero, someone who bought three years earlier was ahead of the broad index; below, behind.
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Monthly total returns. Up capture: how much of the Nifty 500's gain in its rising months this index caught (100 is all of it); down capture: the same for falling months. Beta above 1 means bigger swings than the Nifty 500.
| Ahead by, a year | Up capture | Down capture | Beta | Correlation | Tracking error | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full history, from May 2005 | +2.7 pts | 92 | 76 | 0.82 | 0.93 | 8.3% |
| Last 5 years, from Oct 2021 | +0.7 pts | 105 | 103 | 1.12 | 0.93 | 7.0% |
Models and ETFs
No Tipsheet model uses Nifty500 Quality 50. No ETF listed on NSE tracks it. Its trend and momentum have a page of their own.
Data and sources
Nifty500 Quality 50 is computed and published by NSE Indices. History here starts 1 Apr 2005; NSE launched the index on 20 Dec 2024, from a base date of April 01, 2005. All returns are on NSE's total-return index unless marked as price return.
Historical index data. NSE publishes daily index values, total-return values and P/E, P/B and dividend yield for every index on niftyindices.com: historical data. Pick Nifty500 Quality 50 there to download its full series.
- Nifty500 Quality 50 on niftyindices.com: description and methodology
- NSE's monthly factsheet (PDF)
- Current constituents (CSV)
- The weekly series on this page (JSON): growth of 100, drawdown, volatility and rolling returns
Index values themselves are NSE's and are not republished here; the charts show growth of 100 and other figures computed from them.
The workings
The question
Data
Every chart has a table view, a CSV download and a link to its published JSON. Bundles are listed in data status.