By Aditya Raghunath
Investing.com -- It has been a weird week on the BSE for small and mid-cap stocks. On Monday, August 9, the BSE put out a circular that clearly specified gain limits for stocks in these categories for specific time periods.
Stocks that had gained over 6 times in the last six months, 12 times in the last 12 months, 20 times in the last 24 months (two years) and 30 times in the last 36 months (three years), would be subject to the limits.
The exchange said this was a measure to curb excessive price movement in these stocks. It was expected to stop the excessive price rises of stocks that are listed exclusively on the BSE.
"Under the aforesaid framework, the shortlisted securities shall be subjected to additional periodic price limits viz. weekly, monthly, and quarterly price limits," BSE said in the circular.
After this circular was released on Monday, trade in 521 small and mid-cap stocks was halted because there were only sellers in these stocks.
The S&P BSE SmallCap has fallen 3.56% from 26,805.97 on Friday (Aug 6) to 25,849.2 on Wednesday (Aug 11). The S&P BSE Mid Cap has fallen 2.12% from 23,204.72 to 22,710.96 in the same time period.
On August 11, BSE clarified that was valid only for stocks that fall under X, XT, Z, ZP, ZY, and Y categories. The bourse said the framework would be applicable for securities with a price of Rs 10 and more, market capitalization less than Rs 1000 crore. The circular will be effective from August 23.
This essentially means the move is in place for penny stocks. The small-and-mid-cap indices recovered a little on August 11 but are still significantly down compared to August 6.