Nifty dividend yield at 1.23% as payouts shrink

The yield today

The Nifty 50's dividend yield was 1.23% on Monday, 13 July 2026: the past twelve months of dividends paid by its companies, divided by the index's price. The index closed at 24,211.00 at a P/E of 20.87.

It is NSE's own published figure. The series is charted on our Nifty P/E ratio page alongside the P/E and P/B.

Against the long record

The yield series runs back to 1 January 1999: 6,819 sessions to 13 July.

• The median yield is 1.30%.
• 4,450 sessions, about 65%, yielded more than today.
• The peaks came at market lows: 3.18% on 12 May 2003, 2.24% on 27 October 2008 and 2.00% on 23 March 2020, when the index closed at 7,610.25.

The series has the same break as the P/E. On 31 March 2021, when NSE moved to consolidated figures, the yield went from 1.07% to 0.96% in a day. Since then, over 1,302 sessions, the median is 1.28% and 841 sessions yielded more than 1.23%. On either yardstick, today's yield sits in the lower half.

A low P/E and a low yield

The Nifty 50's P/E of 20.87 is below its median of 22.25 since March 2021; only 223 sessions closed lower. Cheap shares usually yield more. These yield less than usual.

The reason shows up when the two ratios are turned back into index points. The index times its yield gives the dividends behind one unit of it; the index divided by its P/E gives the earnings.

Dividends rose through 2025. In 2026 they have fallen by about 11%, while earnings rose about 1%. Against 11 July 2025, dividends are down about 8.9% and earnings up about 4.4%.

The share of profit paid out, the yield times the P/E, is 25.7%. Since March 2021 it has ranged from 24.0% to 36.5%, with a median of 28.5%. The low came on 4 June 2026.

Dividend Opportunities 50: the sharper fall

NSE's Nifty Dividend Opportunities 50 is built from higher-yielding companies, so its yield is the one that should hold up. It has not.

Since its history here began in February 2012, 3,431 of 3,535 sessions yielded more. The only lower readings came in stretches of 2012 and 2013, in 2016, when it reached 2.25% in August, and in 2024, the year its price peaked.

The index fell 3.8% over the year to 13 July, and its earnings, worked out the same way, rose about 11.3%. Its dividends fell about 29%, from roughly 197 to 140 index points. The share it paid out dropped from 48.8% to 31.2%.

Most of that came this year: about 27% since 31 December 2025, much of it in single-day steps in late May and early June 2026, each a drop of about 5% with only small moves in price. Steps like that come from large payments leaving the trailing twelve months or from changes in the index's members; the published ratio cannot say which.

Its P/E, meanwhile, is low: 117 of 1,302 sessions since March 2021 closed lower.

Elsewhere in the market

Nifty IT is the exception: its yield is above its median because its price has fallen further than most, as our IT post in March set out. Its dividends fell too, by about 23% over the year. The Midcap 150's 0.62% is its lowest yield since March 2021. FMCG's has roughly halved against its median.

What this does not tell you

The worked-out dividend figure is approximate. NSE publishes the yield to two decimals, so at 1.23% the dividend figure can be off by up to about 0.4%. Member changes move it too.

Falling payouts are not bad news by themselves. Companies that keep more profit may be reinvesting it, or a few large payers may have paid one-off amounts a year ago. Index-level figures cannot say which.

The yield is not your return. It is the cash part only, and a growth-option fund pays you nothing in cash.

It is not a timing tool. The yield peaks were obvious afterwards, not on the day.

Where to go from here

The Dividend Opportunities 50 page has its daily series. For a fund route to dividend-paying companies, see the dividend yield fund rankings and the guide to dividend yield funds. Our Nifty 50 P/E post for July covers the earnings side.