Domestic retail investors take 30% hit as equity markets decline

About 70% of the loss since August 2018 due to high weightage in mid- and small-cap shares

The recent downturn in equity markets has hit retail investors in a big way but the benchmark equity indices understate the losses suffered by them. The Nifty50 index is down only 7.5 per cent from its August 2018 all-time high but retail investors — those with investments of Rs 2 lakh or less in a company — have lost nearly 30 per cent of the gains they made in the mid- and small-cap rally of the previous two and half years. 

The value of the total retail equity portfolio is now worth Rs 11.1 trillion, down from Rs 12.6 trillion