Nifty India Defence P/E at 60, three times the Nifty 50

A record close, and a high ratio

Nifty India Defence closed at 9,998.70 on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, its highest close in a history here that starts in January 2022. Its price-to-earnings ratio was 60.34, its price-to-book ratio 11.67 and its dividend yield 0.47%.

These are NSE's published end-of-day figures, charted on the Nifty India Defence valuation page.

Against its own history

The index's daily history here begins on 19 January 2022, after NSE's 2021 move to consolidated earnings, so all of it is on one basis: 1,143 sessions.

• P/E: 1,061 sessions closed lower, about the 93rd percentile. The high, 73.36, came on 11 July 2024; the low, 18.85, on 24 February 2022.
• P/B: 762 sessions closed lower, about the 67th percentile.
• Dividend yield: 1,004 sessions yielded more.

Most of that range is a story of re-rating. The P/E's yearly median went from 23.13 in 2022 to 32.88 in 2023 and 53.08 in 2024, and has stayed above 50 since. Measured only from 2024, when the median was 53.74, today's 60.34 sits around the 88th percentile: still high, but less of an outlier.

How the index got here

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

Since January 2022 the index has risen about 7.2 times. The earnings behind it rose about 2.8 times and the P/E about 2.6 times. Roughly half the gain is profit growth and half is investors paying more for each rupee of it.

The last year tilts towards the second half. Since 8 September 2025 the price is up 32.6% and the earnings behind it about 15.0%, so the P/E went from 52.33 to 60.34.

The past five months are steeper still. From its 2026 low on 30 March the index has risen 38.6%, while the earnings behind it rose 5.0%. The P/E went from 45.72, its lowest reading this year, to just under its 2026 high of 60.47, set on 14 August.

Against the Nifty 50

On earnings, Defence now costs 3.02 times the Nifty 50 (60.34 against 19.98). Since January 2022 that multiple has ranged from 0.89, in 2022 when Defence was the cheaper of the two, to 3.17 on 11 July 2024. Its median is 2.14, and only 9 sessions showed a higher multiple than today's.

Book grew while earnings paused

Since the end of July the earnings figure behind the index has been flat, at about 166 index points. The book value behind it, price divided by P/B, rose about 11% in the same weeks, mostly in steps during August. That is why the P/B has eased from 12.66 at the end of June to 11.67 while the P/E has climbed.

What this does not tell you

A short history. Under five years, most of it a re-rating, is a thin base for calling any level normal. The median of 46.90 is itself far above where the index started.

A narrow index. A single-theme index can be driven by a handful of companies, so its ratios can move sharply on one company's results.

A record is not a signal. The index fell 20.5% from its 2025 high of 9,078.30 to the 30 March low before setting this one.

This is the index, not a fund. Defence-themed funds hold their own selection and weights; our July look at defence fund returns covers how they did.

Where to go from here

At mid-year, the cheapest and dearest NSE indices put Defence in the dearest tenth of its own history. For the market as a whole, see the Nifty 50 P/E post for September. The guide to sectoral and thematic funds covers the concentration risk that comes with a single-theme bet.