Small-cap funds in the March fall: 15% below their peaks

Where small caps stand on 13 March

On Friday, 13 March 2026, the median small-cap fund closed 14.93% below its all-time high NAV. Measured against the highest NAV of the past 52 weeks instead, the median fund was 13.14% down.

The fall has been fast lately. Between 27 February and 13 March, the median fund lost 7.14% in two weeks. Every one of the 34 funds fell over that stretch, by between 4.51% and 8.73%.

All figures are for the Direct plan, Growth option, from daily NAVs to 13 March 2026. Returns under a year are absolute; returns of a year or more are annualised.

Two different falls

The gap between those two medians says something about this category. For most small-cap funds, the March fall is the second leg of a decline that started long before 2026.

Of the 28 small-cap funds that existed in September 2024, 23 still have their all-time high in the period from September 2024 to early January 2025. They have not been back there since. Their 52-week highs came later, and 17 of the 34 funds set theirs within a day of 17 July 2025.

The index tells the same story. The Nifty Smallcap 250 closed at 14,857.50 on 13 March:

By contrast, the Nifty 50 and the Nifty Midcap 150 both set records this year: the Nifty 50 at 26,328.55 on 2 January and the Midcap 150 at 22,606.50 on 7 January. On 13 March they were 12.07% and 10.50% below those records.

This year alone, small caps fell less

Measured from 1 January, small-cap funds have not been the worst place to be.

The median large-cap fund lost more in 2026 than the median small-cap fund. What sets small caps apart is the starting point: they entered the year already well below their peaks.

Furthest from the top, and closest

This ranking covers the 30 small-cap funds with at least a year of NAVs, sorted by the distance below their all-time high.

Tata Small Cap is the outlier on every line: the deepest fall from its peak, the deepest from its 52-week high, the weakest 2026 and the only one-year loss among the 30.

Union Small Cap held up best on the shorter measures. It was 9.78% below its 52-week high, the smallest gap among the 30, and down 6.55% in 2026, the smallest loss of all 34 funds. Its one-year return of 15.19% is also the category's best.

The two weeks since 27 February did not follow the same order. Quantum Small Cap, 12.78% below its peak, lost the most in that stretch (8.73%). Quant Small Cap lost the least (4.51%).

What this does not tell you

A fall in progress has no known bottom. These are distances from a high on one Friday's close. They say nothing about whether the decline is near its end or how long a recovery would take.

The worst of the past three years was bigger. The median small-cap fund's deepest fall over three years, from peak to trough, was 24.12%, most of it between late 2024 and early 2025. Today's 14.93% is inside that range, not beyond it.

Rankings over two weeks are noise. A fund that held up in one fortnight can lead the next leg down. Nothing in this post is advice to buy or sell any fund.

Where to go from here

Every fund is on the small-cap fund page. For the market-wide picture of this fall, see the Nifty 50's correction, and for the largest funds, large-cap fund returns in March.

For how to think about a fall while it is happening, read the psychology of a market crash, and for what a monthly SIP does through one, a 20-year SIP through crashes.