At Sensex 18,000, we are looking at a very different market, a very different future, a very different Sensex itself. Real estate, for instance, which had no presence in the market benchmark but is a major driver of the economy today, is a rising star — Unitech has a weight of 1.8 per cent in Nifty, while leader DLF, which will join the Sensex shortly, should carry an equivalent weight in it. The new Sensex reflects a new India too — finance commands a 20 per cent weight, infrastructure weighs in 19 per cent, while IT and telecom add up to 24 per cent; earlier, it was dominated by commodities and FMCGs.

It is this changed perspective reflecting a future multiplier that analysts have to keep in mind when studying Sensex 18,000 — or should we say 20,000?