The rooted heavyweights
January 21, 2021
ITC, Reliance, L&T and HUL are the only survivors
Only four stocks — Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, ITC and Hindustan Unilever (then Hindustan Lever) — have survived the roller-coaster ride of the S&P BSE Sensex over the years. The BSE Sensex was launched on January 2, 1986 with 1978-79 as base year at a base value of 100 points. Since then, the benchmark has undergone various changes in its constituents. However, these four stocks stood rock solid and continued to survive over three decades.
The Sensex was earlier dominated by Tata and Birla group companies. Some of the companies such as Asian Cables, Zenith and Scindia Shipping have disappeared either through merger or were wound up.