What this Shariah index ETF is
Nifty 50 Shariah BeES is an exchange-traded fund from Nippon India Mutual Fund that follows the Nifty50 Shariah index, a list of large Indian companies that pass a Shariah screen. Its full name is Nippon India ETF Nifty 50 Shariah BeES. It is classed as an open-ended index exchange-traded scheme, meaning it simply copies an index and is bought and sold on a stock exchange like a share.
The name has changed more than once. The product began life as Reliance ETF Shariah BeES, later became Nippon India ETF Shariah BeES and now carries the longer name above. Those earlier names refer to the same scheme, so you may meet any of them.
Because it is passive, there is no fund manager choosing stocks by judgement. A manager, Jitendra Tolani since 1 February 2025, runs the scheme to keep it close to the index. The aim is to track the total returns of the Nifty50 Shariah index before expenses, which is also the scheme benchmark, labelled the Nifty50 Shariah TRI.
Origin: India’s first Shariah-compliant ETF
Benchmark Mutual Fund launched the product in 2009 and presented it as the first Shariah-compliant ETF in India. The offer period ran from 4 to 25 February. The scheme was allotted on 18 March 2009. At launch it tracked the S&P CNX Shariah index, which then had 37 constituents, and each unit was priced at one tenth of the Nifty level.
The sponsor name moved from Benchmark to Reliance and then to Nippon India. Ask the fund house to explain the ownership history behind each change of name.
On the exchange the units trade under the symbol SHARIABEES, and the ISIN is INF732E01128. Ask the fund house or the National Stock Exchange for the exact date it began trading.
How the index is built and screened
The Nifty50 Shariah factsheet dated 30 October 2026 gives a base date of 29 December 2006 and shows 17 constituents weighted by free float. At each rebalancing no single stock may exceed 33% and the top three together may not exceed 62%. Those caps stop one giant company from taking over the index.
Screening is repeated every month by the index provider’s Shariah screening partner. Nippon names the partner as TASIS, which applies business screens that remove conventional financial services, alcohol, tobacco and gambling, plus a financial screen that keeps interest-based debt at or below 25% of total assets.
Why the stock count differs
The scheme reported 18 stocks plus cash on 30 September 2026, while the index factsheet counts 17 constituents a month later. The two counts carry different dates. Check the date on any holding list you read before drawing conclusions, and treat a mismatch as a reason to ask the fund house.
Holdings and concentration
The portfolio disclosure of 31 January 2026 showed Infosys at 21.91%, an entry listed as Tata at 20.96%, Birla Aditya at 11.04% and Hindustan Unilever at 8.03%. By 30 September 2026 the picture had changed: Infosys 14.83%, Eternal 9.79%, TCS 8.84%, Sun Pharma 8.12% and Hindustan Unilever 7.04%, with cash at 0.24%.
The shift between the two dates shows how quickly the line-up and the weights move. The index factsheet of 30 October 2026 listed Infosys at 17.48%, TCS at 10.67%, Eternal at 10.40%, Sun Pharma at 7.86% and Hindustan Unilever at 6.91%. The same five names appear in each recent list, only with different shares of the total.
With only 17 or 18 stocks, the fund is far more concentrated than a broad index fund. A fall in one large technology or consumer company will move the unit price noticeably, and the caps of 33% and 62% still allow a lot of weight in a few names.
A practical way to use these figures is to ask what the ETF does for you that a plain Nifty 50 fund does not. The answer is a narrower list of companies chosen by a screen, which also means that large parts of the market, such as conventional financial services, are absent. If you already own big Indian technology and consumer companies through other funds, buying this ETF may simply raise your weight in the same few names.
Pay attention to which date each figure carries. These three lists were prepared at different times, so lining up their numbers without noting the dates would produce a false picture. When you compare this ETF with another Shariah-labelled fund, use the same date for both.
Performance and what the numbers do not say
To 30 September 2026 the scheme returned minus 12.43% over one year against minus 11.55% for its benchmark. Since inception it gave 11.24% against 12.39% for the index. The small gap between fund and index is what you would expect from a tracker: costs and timing differences mean it seldom matches the index exactly.
The more important point is the direction. A one-year loss above 12% is a real setback and shows that the ETF carries full equity risk. The since-inception figure covers a very long period and hides the ups and downs along the way, so it should not be read as what a new buyer will earn.
Ask the fund house for the current expense ratio and the size of the scheme, or look them up on the exchange, before you buy, since cost is the main difference between ETFs that track similar indices. Compare the figure with the cost of a plain Nifty 50 fund, because a narrower index is worth paying for only if the screen matters to you.
The scheme itself is not labelled Shariah compliant
This is the most important disclosure. The Nippon product note states that the scheme is not a Shariah compliant scheme. The Shariah screening applies to the index, the scheme has no Shariah board of its own, and there is no dividend purification process. Dividends earned by the fund are therefore not cleaned of any impermissible income.
In plain terms, the ETF holds the stocks of a screened index, but nobody supervises the fund as a religious product. Whether that is acceptable depends on the scholar you follow. Some investors accept index screening alone, others want a supervising board and a purification step. A qualified scholar or Sharia adviser must decide, not the product name.
Readers who want the opposite arrangement, with a stated advisory arrangement at the scheme level, should compare other Shariah-labelled funds and read how each one describes its adviser, not just its name.
How to buy Nifty 50 Shariah BeES units and what to expect
The simplest route is through a stock broker on the exchange, where the minimum purchase is one unit. Investors dealing directly with the fund house must work in creation units of 10,000 units, and very large investors face an execution value above INR 25 crore. Most individuals will therefore use the exchange. If trading volume looks thin on the day, consider placing a limit order so that you know the highest price you will pay.
The exit load is nil, but you will pay normal brokerage and market charges, and the price you get depends on trading volume that day. The product note warns that liquidity and trading volume may restrict the investments the scheme can make, and a thin market can widen the gap between the quoted price and the fund’s value.
The riskometer rates both the scheme and its benchmark Very High. Invest only money you can leave alone for years, and keep your KYC documents ready with the broker. Securities complaints go through SEBI SCORES. Nothing here is a promise of returns, and the ETF is one of several ways to hold Shariah-screened Indian equities.