Small-Caps, Mid-Caps mauled

A number of small-cap and mid-cap shares declined sharply in sync with a broad market fall.

Some major losers in the small-cap and mid-cap space, were ABG Heavy Industries (down 11% to Rs 210), GMR Industries (down 10% to Rs 322), SSI (down 10% to Rs 148), Flex Industries (down 10% to Rs 96.15), Tricom India (down 10% to Rs 107.60), Saurashtra Cement (down 10% to Rs 63.10), Rane Madras (down 10% to Rs 100), Vivimed Labs (down 9% to Rs 152), Alchemist (down 9% to Rs 30.85), Gemini Communications (down 9% to Rs 260), Mangalam Cement (down 9% to Rs 179), Polaris Software (down 11% to Rs 133), Escorts (down 11% to Rs 100), NDTV (down 10% to Rs 195), Shoppers’ Stop (down 10% to Rs 630), Bombay Rayon (down 10% to Rs 207), SRF (down 9% to Rs 176), IndusInd Bank (down 10% to Rs 39.70) and India Cements (down 8% to Rs 196).

A lower-than-expected industrial output growth for October 2006 accentuated the fall on the bourses, after the Sensex had lost 400 points on Monday (11 December) following a surprise hike in cash reserve ratio (CRR) by the RBI, which raised fears of interest rate rise. Sensex’s provisional closing today was 13,007.71, a fall of 391.72 points.

Since late-November 2006, selective recovery was witnessed in small-cap and mid-cap stocks. The BSE Mid-Cap Index had recovered to 5,829.47 by 5 December from 5,454.43 on 20 November. Although the BSE Mid-Cap index had surged since late-November, it had failed to breach the record closing of 6,033.30 of 10 May 2006.

BSE Small-Cap Index had surged to 6,799.99 on 5 December from 6,298.49 of 20 November. It is still sharply off its record closing of 7,812.84 of 10 May 2006.

The market-breadth was quite weak. For 2,124 shares that declined on BSE, 442 rose. As many as 46 shares were unchanged. Losers outpaced gainers by a ratio of 4.8:1.