Ranbaxy, JP Associates to exit NSE benchmark index Nifty from March 28

Mumbai – Debt-laden Jaiprakash Associates and crises-ridden Ranbaxy Laboratories are being removed from the National Stock Exchange’s benchmark Nifty index. They will be replaced by India’s fifth largest software exporter, Tech Mahindra, and United Spirits, the country’s largest liquor company.

As per the changes announced Thursday by India Index Services & Products, which maintains the index, the changes in the 50-share benchmark index will take effect on March 28. Shares of Jaiprakash Associates, the company burdened with nearly Rs60,000 crore of consolidated debt, have plunged 52 per cent from their year-high and 88 per cent from their record high of Rs340 touched on January 4, 2008. The company, which once had a market capitalisation of more than Rs56,000 crore, is currently valued at Rs8,987 crore. The stock price of Ranbaxy Laboratories, the drug maker which is hit by a series of sanctions by the US Food and Drug Administration, has halved in the past three years.

Changes have also been made to various other NSE indices, such as the CNX Nifty Junior Index, CNX 100 Index, CNX 200 Index, S&P CNX 500 Index, CNX Midcap Index and the CNX Smallcap Index. The stocks that will be included in the Nifty Junior index are Bharti Infratel, ING Vysya Bank and Ranbaxy Laboratories. They will replace IDBI Bank, Tech Mahindra and United Spirits.