Nifty 50 P/E at 20.18 after a March low of 19.62

Back above 20

The Nifty 50 closed at 22,968.25 on Monday, 6 April 2026, at a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.18. Its price-to-book ratio was 3.14 and its dividend yield 1.35%.

That is 12.8% below the record close of 26,328.55 from 2 January. The daily series is on our Nifty P/E ratio page.

The low came after the dip under 20

When we wrote about the P/E slipping under 20, the 19.70 of 23 March had already bounced. It did not hold. On 30 March, the last session of the 2025-26 financial year, the index closed at 22,331.40 at a P/E of 19.62.

• That was the lowest P/E close since 5 July 2022, when the ratio was 19.54.
• The P/B of 3.05 was the lowest since 24 September 2020. (NSE's 2021 change of earnings method left the P/B almost untouched, so its longer record still compares.)

Since that low the index is up 2.9% and the P/E is up by the same 2.9%, to 20.18. Earnings did not move; the bounce is all price.

The financial year in two numbers

The 2025-26 financial year ended on 31 March. The index closed its last session on 30 March at 22,331.40, down 5.1% from 23,519.35 on 28 March 2025.

The P/E fell further, from 21.37 to 19.62, a drop of 8.2%. Dividing one by the other, the earnings behind the index rose about 3.4% over the financial year. The market finished the year cheaper than it started it, mostly because the price fell and partly because profits grew a little.

A month of readings

Since our early-March reading, the index is down 7.3% and the P/E down 6.9%, which implies earnings 0.4% lower. Since the January record, the index is down 12.8% and the P/E 12.0%, with earnings about 0.9% lower.

Three months of falling prices, in other words, have come with almost no change in the profits behind them.

Where 20.18 sits

The comparisons start on 31 March 2021, when NSE switched to consolidated earnings. The March post explains why older readings do not compare. Since then there have been 1,236 sessions.

• P/E: 74 sessions closed lower than 20.18, about 6%. The median is 22.30 and the low 18.92, on 17 June 2022.
• P/B: only 7 sessions closed below 3.14, all of them between 19 March and 2 April.
• Dividend yield: 1.35%, above its 1.28% median.

On all three measures the index is at the cheaper end of its five years.

A year ago, on 4 April 2025, the index closed at 22,904.45 at a P/E of 20.82. The price is up 0.3% since, the P/E down 3.1%, and the implied earnings up about 3.5%.

What this does not tell you

A low is only a low until it is not. The 30 March reading is the lowest since mid-2022 so far. Nothing in the ratio says whether it holds.

The earnings figure moves too. The "E" is trailing twelve-month profit, and it updates as companies report. A new figure can move the ratio with no change in price.

This is the index, not your fund. A large-cap fund holds its own selection at its own weights.

Where to go from here

For the month that produced the low, see the March 2026 market recap, and for how funds finished the year, the FY 2025-26 fund returns review.

The guide on whether the market is expensive covers what a cheap reading can and cannot mean.