Risk–Return Analysis of Nifty 50, Nifty 100, Nifty 200 and Nifty 500: Evidence from India, 2021–2026.

This study compared the risk–return characteristics of the Nifty 50, Nifty 100, Nifty 200 and Nifty 500 over the period from April 2021 to March 2026 using daily price-index returns. The descriptive results indicate that Nifty 500 recorded the highest observed cumulative return, followed by Nifty 200 and Nifty 100, while Nifty 50 recorded the lowest cumulative return and the lowest annualised volatility. The paired-samples t-tests did not identify statistically significant differences in mean daily returns between Nifty 50 and the other three indices at the 5% significance level. The conclusions remained unchanged after Holm correction for multiple comparisons. Accordingly, the observed differences in mean daily returns should be interpreted as descriptive differences rather than evidence of a statistically established return advantage. All four indices exhibited negative skewness and positive excess kurtosis, indicating asymmetric return distributions with heavier tails than a normal distribution. These characteristics underline the importance of evaluating volatility and extreme returns alongside average performance. The findings are limited to the selected five-year period and to price-index returns, which exclude dividends. Further research could incorporate total-return indices, downside-risk measures and robust statistical tests of mean return differences. Overall, the study provides a period-specific comparison of four major Indian equity indices and highlights the importance of distinguishing observed performance differences from statistically supported conclusions.

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