Nifty Waves Index Debuts at WAVES 2025: Media & Gaming Stocks in Focus; Features Nazara, Zee, Saregama & More

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has launched a new thematic index, the Nifty Waves Index, to track India's fast-growing media, entertainment, and gaming sectors. The launch took place at the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, which was held in Mumbai. It is a flagship global event, promoted by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, and was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit brought together industry leaders, policymakers, from around the world.

The event was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and NSE MD & CEO Ashishkumar Chauhan, who jointly unveiled the new Nifty Waves index.

The Nifty Waves Index comprises 43 listed companies that operate across the media, entertainment, and gaming ecosystem. The main aim is to provide investors a benchmark to assess and invest in India's creative exports.

The index includes companies from television broadcasting, digital content platforms, film production, music labels, gaming, and cable services, all major pillars of India's ever-evolving M&E industry.

Top Constituents of the Nifty Waves Index by Weightage

Here are the major stocks making up the Nifty Waves index and their respective weightages:

Nazara Technologies: 5.23%

Zee Media Corporation: 5.15%

Zee Entertainment Enterprises: 5.14%

Hathway Cable & Datacom: 5.07%

TV Today Network: 5.07%

Saregama India: 5.02%

PVR INOX: 4.96%

Network18 Media & Investments: 4.76%

Den Networks: 4.75%

Tips Music: 4.70%

What Does the Nifty Waves Index Represent?

The Nifty Waves index is NSE's attempt to capture investor interest in India's booming media and content industry. With digital consumption surging post-pandemic and sectors like OTT, gaming, and music streaming growing at double-digit rates, this new index offers a targeted way for investors to gain exposure to the media & entertainment theme.

As per data from NSE, the index is structured with a base date of April 1, 2005, and a base value of 1000. Stocks are selected based on free-float market capitalisation, and all eligible companies must be domiciled in India and traded or permitted to trade on the NSE. The index is reconstituted semi-annually and rebalanced quarterly, ensuring it remains current and reflective of sectoral trends. Each stock's weight is capped at 5% to maintain diversification.

More About Nifty Waves

These kinds of themed indices, like Nifty Waves, help investors diversify their portfolios into high-growth sectors and track the performance of sectors like gaming and streaming. It will also help investors make informed decisions based on specific trends along with giving asset managers and ETF providers an opportunity to create index-linked products focused mainly on the digital entertainment sector.

Ashishkumar Chauhan, MD & CEO of NSE, was quoted by ET at the event saying, "We are proud to introduce the Nifty Waves index, designed to provide deep insights into the performance of one of India's most dynamic sectors. It offers us a benchmark to understand market trends and unlock the full potential of India's creative economy."