July 9 (Bloomberg) -- Bombay Stock Exchange, Asia's oldest, started a real estate index, seeking to reflect the appetite for shares of property developers that last month helped DLF Ltd. raise $2.4 billion in the country's biggest initial stock sale.

DLF will account for 36 percent of the 11-member BSE Realty index, the exchange said today in an e-mailed statement. The New Delhi-based company, whose shares began trading on July 5, has a market value of $24 billion.

India's benchmark 30-stock Sensitive index has risen to a record since DLF's June 15 sale, led by cement and engineering companies, on expectations the fastest pace of economic growth in two decades will sustain a construction boom. Still, realty sector accounts for 4 percent of the nation's $1 trillion stock market, below the global norm of 15 percent, the exchange said.

``This reflects the headroom available for growth of this sector,'' according to the statement.

The launch of the index coincided with the 133rd Foundation Day celebrations of the exchange.

The exchange has set the index's base year at 2005 and will add companies based on the so-called ``free-float'' method of shares available for trading. The index stood at 7,333.97 today, according to the statement.

Unitech Ltd., with a value of $10.3 billion, is the second- most valuable company in the index, followed by Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd., the exchange said.

DLF sold 175 million new shares at 525 rupees apiece, the middle of the range offered to investors. The stock was little changed at 573.95 rupees when trading ended on the Bombay Stock Exchange today, valuing the company at 969 billion rupees.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sumit Sharma in Mumbai at sumitsharma@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 9, 2007 11:38 EDT