Smallcap stock sell-off continued for the third straight day today (March 13) as it experience the most intense fall this year so far. The Nifty smallcap 100 index fell 4.8%, slipping below 15,000 mark, reaching a low of 14,366 points, marking the most significant intraday decline witnessed so far this year. Majority of stocks in the Nifty Smallcap 100 index are trading at discounts ranging from 10% to 45%.
Stocks like Rites, HUDCO, Data Patterns, NMDC Steel, IRB Infrastructure Developers, Cochin Shipyard, SJVN and Nalco were part of the 99 stocks that are trading in red. Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Jyothy Labs, Century Textiles & Industries, NLC India, HFCL, KEI Industries, MRPL, UCO Bank, Global Health also traded with losses between 5.5% and 11%.
This comes as market regulator SEBI warned of a froth building up in small-cap and mid-cap segments which prompted Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) to instruct mutual funds to conduct stress tests once every 15 days. First such stress test will be published by March 15 and is aimed at providing investors with insights.
ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund also said that it will no longer accept lumpsum deposits in its mid- and small-cap plans beginning March 14- the first fund company to stop such deposits in a mid-cap fund after Nippon, Tata, and SBI MFs stopped lump-sum investments in their small-cap schemes. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund has also stopped switching into both its mid-cap and small-cap funds although it said that it will continue to accept new registrations via systematic investment plans (SIPs) and systematic transfer plans (STPs) with a monthly cap of ₹2 lakh per PAN.
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