Midcap, smallcap indices gain up to 3% in 4 sessions: What's behind?

Even as Indian equities continued to trade in a range amid nervousness around the likely interest rate hike by the US Fed going ahead, broader markets have been gaining steam for the last few sessions. In the past trading sessions, the Nifty Midcap 100 has galloped by 2.76 per cent while its headline peer Nifty 50 has gained over 1 per cent in the same time frame.

As per an IANS report, while FIIs continue to offload their holdings in Indian equities, their target is primarily large caps.

“The tug of war between the FIIs and DIIs continues with sustained selling by the FIIs and sustained buying by the DIIs,” VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services, is quoted as saying in the IANS report.

In the previous session on November 8, FIIs sold Indian equities worth Rs 84.55 crore and have been on a continuous selling spree since October as the global geo-political crisis and higher US bond yields weighed.

From the Nifty Midcap index, amid the rally, stocks like PFC, Prestige Estates, YES Bank, Vodafone Idea, Oberoi Realty, and REC emerged as the top gainers, with gains of between 3-5 per cent.

“Since the buy-on-dips strategy is working, retail investors are buying in the broader market on every dip. There is no selling pressure in the broader market since FII selling is confined to large-caps,” Vijaykumar added.

Similarly, the Nifty Smallcap 100 index has also gained during the said time period and moved higher by 3.35 per cent.