Why Jio Platforms is not part of the NIFTY50 index despite being second-largest company by market cap

Jio Platforms IPO made a blockbuster stock market debut on October 28, 2026. Shares of the telecom giant listed at a 21.3% premium compared to issue price of ₹1,119 apiece and went on to rise 26.8% on the first trading day.

Following a strong market debut, Jio Platforms became India’s second largest company in terms of market capitalisation, second only to its parent company, Reliance Industries. As of 12:30 pm on November 2, 2026, Jio Platforms stock trades around ₹1,442 per share with market cap of ₹13.28 lakh crore.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group became India’s largest business group following the Jio Platforms listing, surpassing the Tata Group. Reliance group has an estimated market cap of over ₹30 lakh crore across 11 listed companies.

After a strong market debut and high market capitalisation many investors were expecting Jio Platforms to become part of the NIFTY50 index, which has the top 50 most valued companies.

But, despite being the second largest company by market cap, Jio Platforms is still not part of NIFTY50 index or trades in F&O segment. Here’s why

Why is Jio Platforms not part of the NIFTY50 index?

Jio Platforms will not immediately become part of a benchmark index NIFTY50 index as listing on the stock exchange does not automatically qualify a company for inclusion in a major benchmark index.

According to NSE indices rules, a newly listed company, like Jio Platforms should have a minimum trading history (usually a 1 to 3 months before being considered for index inclusion). Currently, Jio Platforms is not assigned to a major benchmark index and its index status is listed as NA on the exchange.

Besides minimum trading history, Jio Platforms must also meet the NIFTY50 index stock selection criteria which are as follows:

NIFTY50 stock selection criteria

What is free-float market cap?

If a company has ₹1 lakh crore market cap but only 10% of its shares are considered free float i.e. available for public trading. Then its free-float market cap would be ₹10,000 crore.

There is no fixed rupee free-float market-cap threshold for stock inclusion but NIFTY50 methodology says a stock must have a six-month average free-float market capitalisation at least 1.5 times that of the smallest NIFTY50 constituent to be considered for inclusion.

Recently, BSE replaced Wipro in the NIFTY50 index as BSE’s average free-float market cap of ₹1.40 lakh crore met the average free-float threshold.

Jio Platforms total market capitalisation is around ₹13.18 lakh crore but its free-float market capitalisation is around ₹28,500 crore, representing roughly 2.2% to 2.5% of its total market capitalisation. This indicates that only a small fraction of the total shares are freely tradable in the open market, while a majority shares remain locked-in or held by promoter Reliance Industries and other investors.

For the stock to be eligible for inclusion under semi-annual index review average data is analysed for the six-month periods ending January 31 for the March review and July 31 for the September review.

Going by the above NSE criteria, Jio Platforms could be eligible for NIFTY50 index inclusion only in the September 2027 review cycle as the March 2027 review uses data ending January 31, 2027 and by that date only three months of trading history will be available for Jio Platforms shares.

So the key takeaway is that Jio Platforms could become a NIFTY50 candidate in the future because of its size, but investors should not assume it will enter the index immediately as the stock must first become eligible for F&O trading. Then meet the required NSE stock selection criteria like minimum trading history, free-float market-cap and high liquidity.