Nifty 500

The Nifty 500 is India's broadest equity benchmark index — comprising the top 500 companies by free-float market capitalisation listed on NSE across large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap segments — representing approximately 92% to 95% of total NSE listed market capitalisation and providing the most comprehensive coverage of India's publicly traded corporate universe available in a single index. Maintained by NSE Indices Limited and calculated using the free-float market cap weighting methodology, the Nifty 500 encompasses all Nifty 50, Nifty Next 50, Nifty Midcap 150, and Nifty Smallcap 250 constituents — making it the definitive benchmark for assessing the performance of the entire Indian equity market. The Nifty 500 is used as the selection universe for numerous factor and thematic indices — including quality, value, momentum, and ESG strategies — where a broader universe enables more robust factor portfolio construction. SEBI uses Nifty 500 constituent classification to determine large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap category definitions for mutual funds — the top 100 stocks by market cap are large-caps, the next 150 (101 to 250) are mid-caps, and the remaining 250 (251 to 500) are small-caps. For equity investors benchmarking portfolio performance, the Nifty 500 is a more appropriate reference than the Nifty 50 for diversified multi-cap portfolios, as it captures the full market breadth across capitalisation segments and provides a truer reflection of the wealth-creation potential across India's entire listed corporate universe.