Stock market crash: Market analysts provide differing perspectives on current market conditions. (AI image)
Stock market crash: Smallcap and midcap stocks have experienced their most severe decline since the March 2020 Covid market downturn, causing significant losses for retail investors. In February, widespread selling affected the broader market severely, with the BSE Smallcap index declining 14%—marking its first double-digit monthly reduction since the pandemic—whilst the Nifty Midcap 100 fell 10.8%. According to an ET analysis, within the BSE Smallcap index comprising 938 stocks, 321 companies saw declines exceeding 20% in a single month. Notable casualties included Vakrangee, Zen Technologies, Oriental Rail Infra, and Suratwwala Business Group, which fell between 40% and 66%. The situation appears particularly severe, with 243 smallcap companies now trading at less than half their 52-week peak values. The Nifty Midcap 100 descended to its lowest point since March 27, 2024, whilst the Nifty Smallcap 100 dropped 3% to reach its lowest close since March 19, 2024, the ET report said. Investors’ confidence continues to deteriorate amidst persistent selling, unfavourable global indicators, political uncertainty, and concerns about liquidity in smaller capitalisation stocks.
BSE Small Cap Stocks
BSE Small Cap Stocks
BSE Small Cap Stocks
Pratik Gupta of Kotak Institutional Equities maintains a cautious stance regarding small and midcap valuations. “We remain cautious on the outlook for small/mid-caps in general due to expensive valuations in many cases. We have been negative for a while, and despite the correction, we do not believe the valuations have come down enough.” Also Read | Stock market crash: Sensex, Nifty are bleeding! Why it may be time to put your money in gold, silver, FDs, bonds & other investment avenues Gupta identified several key concerns, including potential severe global economic deceleration, reduced agricultural income due to poor monsoons affecting construction, and decreased domestic retail investment in equities. “Most local MF, insurance, and PMS funds are seeing a slowdown in their equity inflows, but overall net inflows continue. The nature of flows has, however, shifted from small/midcaps or thematic/sectoral funds to large-cap or balanced debt-equity funds,” he observed. Sudeep Shah, Deputy Vice President and Head of Technical & Derivatives Research at SBI Securities, noted significant technical deterioration in both indices. “The Nifty Midcap 100 has slipped below its 100-week EMA for the first time since August 2020, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 has been trading below its 100-week EMA for the last three weeks. The 14-week RSI is in bearish territory and falling, which is a negative sign.” He outlined important price points for observation. “For the Nifty Midcap 100, the 47,200-47,000 zone will act as immediate support, while a further slide below 47,000 could open doors to 46,400. On the upside, 48,800-48,900 will be a key hurdle. Meanwhile, for the Nifty Smallcap 100, support is placed at 14,200-14,100, which aligns with the 50% Fibonacci retracement of its prior rally from 8,682 to 19,716. Resistance is at 15,100-15,200.” Also Read | ‘More of white noise’: Why Trump’s reciprocal tariffs on India’s exports to US will have a ‘limited’ impact Rajkumar Singhal, CEO of Quest Investment Advisors, observed that disappointing earnings have significantly affected small and midcap sectors. “Smallcap valuations remain above long-term averages, and earnings downgrades have exacerbated the sell-off. With earnings likely to recover in CY25, the pain in small and midcaps may ease, but a selective, bottom-up approach is key—focus on quality businesses with strong balance sheets and sustainable growth.” Market analysts provide differing perspectives on current market conditions. Dharmesh Shah from ICICI Direct draws confidence from past market behaviour. “Over the past two decades, midcaps and smallcaps have corrected by 25-30% during bull markets before seeing a strong rebound,” he noted, whilst acknowledging the possibility of further decline whilst suggesting current levels may indicate approaching market bottom. According to Shah’s analysis, present market valuations present opportunities in quality midcap and smallcap shares, with potential upside movement anticipated within the next quarter. Also Read | Q3 FY25 GDP grows at 6.2%; India sees ‘highest growth in 12 years’ in FY24 – top 10 data points to know Offering an alternative perspective, market specialist Nischal Maheshwari advocates for a selective approach towards mid and smallcap investments. “We should stick to sectors where we find comfort in valuations. If mid and smallcaps have corrected enough and you feel comfortable with the valuation, you can look at them selectively.” Given the current international uncertainties, pre-election market volatility, and deteriorating technical indicators, investors must decide between immediate market participation or maintaining a cautious stance. The forthcoming period will prove decisive in establishing whether the current market decline stabilises or continues further downward.
PUNE: Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) cyber frauds cheated a Pune-based firm, dealing in IT services and imports of dry fruits, out of Rs 6.5 crore on March 27. MitM is a type of cyber fraud in which an attacker intercepts and relays communication between two parties, making it appear as if they are communicating directly. As per the police complaint, the 39-year-old company director received an email on the company ID purportedly from a US firm he did business with about a payment request. He initiated the transaction believing the email request was legitimate. But later, when he contacted officials of the other firm, they denied receiving the amount. He checked the email he had received and discovered fraudsters had made two alterations – they changed one letter in the other firm’s email address and its bank account number.
Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) on Thursday (April 24, 2025) announced that it will expedite claim settlements of Pahalgam terror attack victims in an effort to provide financial relief to their families.
Expressing deep grief over the death of innocent citizens in the terrorist attack, CEO and MD Siddharta Mohanty said LIC has decided to offer concessions to mitigate the hardships of the claimants.
In lieu of death certificates, any evidence in government records of death of the policyholder due to the terrorist attack or any compensation paid by the Union or State governments will be accepted as proof of death. All efforts will be taken to ensure that the claimants are reached out to and claims settled expeditiously to the affected families,” he said in a release.
For assistance, the claimants may contact the nearest LIC branch, division, or customer zones. They may also call LIC call centre at 022 68276827, the company said.
Insurance aggregator Policybazaar said it would like to offer a job to a family member in any of the Policybazaar or Paisabazaar offices located across India or sponsor a child’s education for every impacted Indian family in Pahalgam. “It is a very small gesture towards creating a social security cover for these families,” co-founder Alok Bansal said in a social media post.
NEW DELHI: In a significant development, Bharti Airtel is understood to have approached the govt for swapping its statutory dues with equity, something that has been done in the case of beleaguered Vodafone Idea.The company is understood to have outstanding govt payment dues of over Rs 70,000 crore, including Rs 40,000 crore of AGR dues. Sources said that Airtel believes that the measure will help it conserve cash, while also enabling the govt to be a part of a fast-growing enterprise which carries prospects of a growth in share price and resultant valuations. “A proposal to this effect is understood to have been submitted to the department of telecom,” a source said. Airtel has not officially commented on the matter as yet. The formula to swap the outstanding statutory payment dues with equity had been initiated by the department of telecom to help the industry, particularly loss-making Vodafone Idea tide over the financial challenges and continue as a going concern. Airtel’s current market cap is around Rs 10.5 lakh crore, as per the details on the Bombay Stock Exchange. The company will need to transfer around 6% equity to the govt to clear its statutory dues. Shares of Airtel closed the day at Rs 1,845 on the BSE, down 2%. Market analysts believe that govt has “a chance of realising positive returns” from the Airtel equity, considering that the company has been growing in profitability. This will be unlike Vodafone Idea where the value of its stake value has so far only fetched negative returns with the company’s scrip remaining below Rs 10 for most of the period of govt’s holding. Govt had converted the Voda Idea statutory debt into equity at a price of Rs 10 per share, which is the face value. The current price of the company’s share is Rs 8, down one per cent at close on Thursday.
