The cheapest and dearest NSE indices at mid-2026

Half a year, measured against itself

Every index has its own normal P/E. Consumer staples have traded at 40 times earnings for years and public-sector companies at 10, so comparing the two says little. This post compares each index with itself: its P/E on Monday, 29 June 2026, against its own median since 31 March 2021, the day NSE moved its index P/Es to consolidated earnings.

The universe is the 60 NSE indices that had a published P/E on 31 March 2021, on 29 June 2026, and on at least 1,236 of the 1,292 sessions in between.

On that measure, 40 of the 60 sit below their median and 20 above. At the end of 2025, measured the same way against their history to that date, the split was the reverse: 20 below, 40 above. In six months, a third of the list has crossed to the cheap side of its own history.

The Nifty 50 itself is at 20.65 against a median of 22.25: 7.2% below, around the 13th percentile.

The sectors, ranked

Of the 60, twenty are sector or theme indices. Here they are, ranked by percentile: the share of the 1,292 sessions that closed at a lower P/E than 29 June.

The Financial Services 25/50 index, a capped variant, sits at 35.6. The Healthcare Index has 1,289 sessions rather than 1,292. Auto's median includes 2021 readings above 700, when its earnings were tiny; our May post measures it from 2023 instead, where it looks dearer.

The rest of the list

Among the broad and strategy indices, the extremes look like this.

Small caps are the outlier among the size indices: the Smallcap 250's P/E of 34.89 is 22.1% above its median, while the Midcap 150 sits just below its own, at the 43rd percentile.

What put them there

A P/E moves when the price moves or when the earnings behind it do. Splitting the year from 27 June 2025 into the two:

"Earnings" is the price divided by the P/E: the profit behind one unit of the index.

The cheap end got there on rising profits. IT, FMCG and Oil & Gas all earned more than a year ago and their prices fell anyway. IT's P/E set its low of the period on 23 June 2026, at 18.27, and today is barely above it.

The dear end got there on falling profits. Pharma rose 15% while the earnings behind it fell. Small caps went nowhere on price, but their earnings fell, and the P/E rose. Earlier posts in this series traced the IT, FMCG and Pharma cases month by month.

What is not in the table

Indices with a broken or short history. Nifty Realty had no published P/E for two months after the 2021 switch; measured from January 2022 it is around the 7th percentile. Nifty India Defence starts in January 2022 and sits around the 90th percentile of that history. Nifty EV & New Age Automotive starts in May 2024 and is near the top of its range.

Thirteen indices whose history in our data starts in mid-June 2026, including Capital Goods, Power, Hospitals, Insurance, NBFC, Retail and Telecommunications. Ten sessions or fewer is not a history, so they are left out of any ranking.

What this does not tell you

Below its own median is not the same as cheap. FMCG at 33.80 still costs more than one and a half times the Nifty 50. CPSE and PSE sit above their medians at P/Es near 10 to 13.

Strategy indices change members by rule. The NIFTY100 Alpha 30's earnings rose 68.7% over the year while its price fell 3.7%; much of that is likely the index swapping in different companies, which it does by rule, rather than the same companies earning more.

Five years is one cycle. A median from 2021 to 2026 reflects that period's rates and profits. Nothing makes an index return to it.

These are indices, not funds. A sector fund holds its own selection and weights.

Where to go from here

Every index here has its own page under the NSE index P/E hub, including Nifty IT and Nifty Pharma. The guide to valuation without market timing covers what a ranking like this can and cannot do, and sectoral and thematic funds covers the risk of acting on one.