The index committee of the BSE, which comprises of 16 representatives from the field of broking, portfolio management and mutual-fund industry, decided to give a wide representation to the four market favourites at its meeting on October 12.

After the inclusion of these four stocks, the market capitalisation of the Sensex has increased by Rs 7,000 crore to Rs 165,558 crore as on September 30, 1998, representing 34.5 per cent of BSE's market capitalisation.

"After having deliberated for over a year, the committee decided to restructure the index to make it more broad-based," said BSE executive director RC Mathur.

The revised Sensexhas attributed the highest weightage to the consumer non-durables sector -- 21.74 per cent with a Rs 35,991 crore market capitalisation. Hindustan Lever represents a market weightage of 20.22 per cent pegged at the market cap of Rs 33,475 crore. The index scrip having the smallest market cap at Rs 1,093 crore is Tata Power, which represents 0.66 per cent of the index market capitalisation.

"An index needs to be more broad-based and liquid. With index futures on its way, it is essential for the index to be liquid and stocks need to be traded frequently," said Anand Rathi, a member of the index committee.

Another prominent feature of the index is that the stocks included in the new list are within the top 75 scrips in terms of their market capitalisation and all the index scrips have been traded every day in the past two years.

The index committee has also considered the dividend-paying track record of these companies as well as their profitability record for the past three years.

The revised index,which is a barometer of 15 industry representatives, has assigned the food and beverages sector a weightage of 12.75 per cent with the market cap at Rs 21,113 crore, healthcare industry has been given a weightage of 4.70 per cent (Rs 7,783 crore), Consumer non-durables has been given a weightage of 21.74 per cent (Rs 35,991 crore), while Auto industry shares a weightage of 7.92 per cent (Rs 13,118 crore). Housing and construction has been assigned a weightage of 1.79 per cent (Rs 2,965 crore), metal and metal products' weightage stands at 4.34 per cent (Rs 7,191 crore), that of capital goods at 4.16 per cent (Rs 6,883 crore). The finance sector has a weightage of 9.93 per cent (Rs 16,441 crore), IT accounts for a weightage of 4.33 per cent (Rs 7,166 crore), oil and gas has a weightage of 6.22 per cent (10,306 crore), Petrochemicals 6.70 per cent (Rs 11,093 crore), Telecom accounts for a 7.71 weightage (Rs 12,758 crore), power stands at 1.98 per cent (Rs 3,278 crore) and hotel at 1.10 per cent (Rs 7,657crore).