Small Caps Halt Five-Month Gaining Streak

The Nifty Smallcap Index reported its first monthly loss since August amid concerns about the economic impact of the novel coronavirus on the world’s second-most populous nation.

The index, which gauges the performance of small-sized companies, is down nearly 9 percent in February, according to Bloomberg data. It dropped nearly 4.5 percent in Friday’s trade—the biggest intra-day fall since September 2018.

With today’s fall, the index turned net negative in the first two months of 2020. Year-to-date, the Nifty Smallcap Index is down around 2.74 percent, with over half (57 of 100) of all the members quoting at a price lower than that at the start of the year.

Fear tightened its grip on Indian and global equity markets as the novel coronavirus spread from China to across the globe. And market veterans expect the stocks to fall further in the next few weeks as the world gets a better idea of the extent and impact of the virus outbreak.