The Great Smids Rally: Who's At Risk?

FOMO is at play and many retail investors are in a zone of danger

- Ram Sahgal

On 12 September, small and mid-cap stock (Smids) indices in India recorded their biggest single day fall of the year. And investors in these shares lost ₹5.5 trillion. But this hasn’t bothered Rohit Verma, a tech professional in his mid-50s with a big consulting firm, much.

“A 10% plus correction after such a stupendous rally in Smids isn’t abnormal. But I believe the structural story in areas like renewables is intact," Verma said.

A retail investor, who like most of his ilk hunts for eye-popping returns in the Smids space, Verma lapped up Inox Green Energy Services and KPI Green Energy sometime in April this year, when the current rally gathered pace. Since April, the Inox Green share has delivered an 85% return while KPI Green returned 60%.

Inox Green is a wind power operation and maintenance services company. KPI Green Energy is a solar power producer.

Verma doesn’t plan to offload his shares yet, but won’t add more. “For me, the alarm bells will ring only if there is across-the-board selling, an election upset, or if corporate governance issues crop up in a particular stock I hold, and I don’t envisage such events," he said.

By elections, he means India’s general election, expected to be held between April and May next year.