The S&P CNX Nifty is a well diversified 50 stock index accounting for 22 sectors of the economy. It is used for a variety of purposes such as benchmarking fund portfolios, index based derivatives and index funds.

S&P CNX Nifty is owned and managed by India Index Services and Products Ltd. (IISL), which is a joint venture between NSE and CRISIL. IISL is India's first specialised company focused upon the index as a core product. IISL has a Marketing and licensing agreement with Standard & Poor's (S&P), who are world leaders in index services.

• The S&P CNX Nifty Index represents about 66.90% of the free float market capitalization of the stocks listed on NSE as on December 30, 2011.
• The total traded value for the last six months of all index constituents is approximately 56.58% of the traded value of all stocks on the NSE.
• Impact cost of the S&P CNX Nifty for a portfolio size of Rs.50 lakhs is 0.08%.
• S&P CNX Nifty is professionally maintained and is ideal for derivatives trading

From June 26, 2009, S&P CNX Nifty is computed based on free float methodology.