Enter your search terms Submit search form

The BSE Sensex or Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index is a value-weighted index composed of 30 stocks with the base April 1979 = 100. It consists of the 30 largest and most actively traded stocks, representative of various sectors, on the Bombay Stock Exchange. These companies account for around one-fifth of the market capitalization of the BSE.

The base value of the Sensex is 100 on April 1, 1979 and the base year of BSE-SENSEX is 1978-79.

At irregular intervals, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) authorities review and modify its composition to make sure it reflects current market conditions.

The abbreviated form "Sensex" was coined by Deepak Mohoni around 1990 while writing market analysis columns for some of the business newspapers and magazines. It gained popularity over the next year or two.

The stock market has grown by over ten times from June 1990 to today. Using information from April 1979 onwards, the long-run rate of return on the BSE Sensex can be estimated to be 0.52% per week (continuously compounded) with a standard deviation of 3.67%. This translates to 27% per annum, which translates to roughly 18% per annum after compensating for inflation.

SENSEX Calculation Methodology

SENSEX is calculated using the "Free-float Market Capitalization" methodology. As per this methodology, the level of index at any point of time reflects the Free-float market value of 30 component stocks relative to a base period. The market capitalization of a company is determined by multiplying the price of its stock by the number of shares issued by the company. This market capitalization is further multiplied by the free-float factor to determine the free-float market capitalization.

The base period of SENSEX is 1978-79 and the base value is 100 index points. This is often indicated by the notation 1978-79=100. The calculation of SENSEX involves dividing the Free-float market capitalization of 30 companies in the Index by a number called the Index Divisor. The Divisor is the only link to the original base period value of the SENSEX. It keeps the Index comparable over time and is the adjustment point for all Index adjustments arising out of corporate actions, replacement of scrips etc. During market hours, prices of the index scrips, at which latest trades are executed, are used by the trading system to calculate SENSEX every 15 seconds and disseminated in real time.

 

Companies that form the BSE Sensex (last updated on June 6, 2005) Associated Cement Ltd Bajaj Auto Ltd Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd Cipla Ltd Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd Grasim Industries Ltd Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd HDFC HDFC Bank Ltd Hero Honda Motors Ltd Hindalco Industries Ltd Hindustan Lever Ltd ICICI Bank Ltd Infosys Technologies Ltd ITC Ltd Larsen & Toubro Ltd Maruti Udyog Ltd National Thermal Power Corpn Ltd ONGC Ltd Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd Reliance Energy Ltd Reliance Industries Ltd Satyam Computer Services Ltd State Bank of India Tata Consultancy Services Limited Tata Motors Ltd Tata Power Co Ltd Tata Iron & Steel Co Ltd Wipro Ltd

Current BSE Sensex

(Source, Copyright & Courtesy: Bseindia.com)

- All About Sensex, Launch of BSE Sensex
- What is Sensex in the stock market?
- What are the objectives of SENSEX?
- How to calculate BSE SENSEX?
- What is the beta of SENSEX scrips?
- SENSEX - Scrip selection criteria
- Maintenance of SENSEX
- How is the closing Index calculated?
- What are the criteria for selection and review of scrips for the SENSEX?
- Who selects these 30 stocks & How do they select these 30 stocks?
- Dollex series of BSE indices
- Book Building - About Book Building
- Definition of Free-float & Determining Free-float factors of companies
- Understanding Free-float Methodology & Its Major advantages
- Book Building - Glossary
- What are the BSE Sensex & the NSE Nifty?
- Technical Analysis of Indian stock market BSE Sensex Index
- How are adjustments for Bonus, Rights and newly issued Capital carried out in SENSEX?
- The Sensex story: From 1K to 18K
- The Sensex story: From 1K to 20K (Sensex from 1000 to 20000)
- BSE 100 Index
- BSE 200 Index
- BSE 500 Index
- Companies that form the NSE Nifty Index
- BSE TECk INDEX
- BSE BANKEX