NSE Indices launches India’s first-ever REITs & InvITs Index

NSE’s index services subsidiary NSE Indices on Tuesday launched India’s first ever real estate investment trusts (REITs) & infrastructure investment trusts (InvITs) index - Nifty REITs & InvITs Index. The Nifty REITs & InvITs index aims to track the performance of REITs and InvITs that are publicly listed and traded -- listed and traded or not listed but permitted to trade -- at the National Stock Exchange.

The weights of securities within the index are based on their free-float market capitalisation, subject to a security cap of 33% each and the aggregate weight of the top 3 securities is capped at 72%. The Nifty REITs & InvITs Index has a base date of July 01, 2019, and a base value of 1,000. The index will be reviewed and rebalanced on a quarterly basis.

Mukesh Agarwal, CEO, NSE Indices, said: “REITs and InvITs are recognised as strong alternative financial instruments to raise funds against the cash-generating infrastructure and real estate projects. For investors, these instruments provide exposure to real estate or infrastructure assets and offer diversification of risk from regular asset classes like equity, debt and gold and generate regular income."

Agarwal said the launch of the Nifty REITs & InvITs Index aligns with NSE’s goal to provide market representative benchmarks for different asset classes. "The Nifty REITs & InvITs Index will track the performance of publicly listed REITs & InvITs and act as a benchmark for active funds.”

Notably, a REIT or an InvIT is an investment vehicle that owns revenue-generating real estate or infrastructure assets. REITs invest in real estate projects, whereas InvITs invest in infrastructure projects, with long gestation periods. Through REITs & InvITs, investors get exposure to diversified regular income-generating real estate and infrastructure assets.

In an another release, the NSE has cautioned investors against illegal trading platforms, which offer ‘dabba trading’ with guaranteed returns. Dabba trading in India is an illegal form of trading in shares that allows investors to buy and sell stocks outside the stock exchanges.

The NSE warning comes after India’s biggest stock exchange found that the entities—Shri Parasnath Commodity Pvt. Ltd., Shri Parasnath Bullion Pvt. Ltd., Faary Tale Trading Pvt. Ltd., and Bharat Kumar (associated with Trade with Trust)—were providing a dabba or illegal trading platform with assured returns. Investors are cautioned and advised not to subscribe to any such scheme or product offered by any person or entity offering guaranteed returns in the stock market as the same is prohibited by law, the NSE says.

In a separate development, NSE in its report for March 2023 has said of the total companies whose securities are traded on the NSE, Future Retail Limited was the company with the maximum number of complaints at 17, while Jindal Cotex Limited was one such company whose securities are suspended or withdrawn from trading on NSE.