This article describes an index that measures the performance of an exchange, industry or a geographic region. View articles referencing this index.

 

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Advait Pandey

The BSE Sensex is a market capitalized index that tracks 30 stocks from the Bombay Stock Exchange, which are representative of the stocks from various sectors of the Bombay Stock Exchange. They account for approximately one fifth of the capitalization of the exchange.

Weighting

The index is calculated based on a free-float capitalization method; a variation of the market cap method. Instead of using a company's outstanding shares it uses its float, or shares that are readily available for trading. The free-float method, therefore, does not include restricted stocks, such as those held by company insiders.

The Free float Adjustment factor, or FAF for short, represents the proportion of shares that is freefloated as a percentage of issued shares and then its rounded up to the nearest mulitple of 5% for calculation purposes. To find the free-float capitalization of a company, first find its market cap (number of outstanding shares x share price) then multiply its free-float factor.

The free-float factor is determined by the percentage of floated shares to outstanding. For example, if a company has a float of 4 million shares and outstanding shares of 5 million, the percent of float to outstanding is 80%. A company with an 80% free float falls in the 75-80% free-float factor, or 0.80, which is then multiplied by its market cap. For example: $120 million (12 million shares at $10/share) x 0.80 = $96 million.^[1]

Composition

The composition of the BSE Sensex, as of August 27, 2008:^[2]

References

1. ↑ Investopedia.com
2. ↑ List of Sensex stocks