Small‑cap Indian stocks show strong April returns despite weak macro narrative: Report

New Delhi: Indian equities delivered robust returns across market segments in April with smaller companies leading the surge, despite worsening macro indicators due to US-Iran conflict, a report said on Saturday.

The report from OmniScience Capital said Nifty Smallcap 250 index delivered impressive 13.4 per cent returns, while Nifty Microcap 250 delivered 16.2 per cent returns, the report noted.

The company said its “Bharat Vectors” framework — covering about 1,500 investible companies — showed the smallest market‑cap segments outperformed.

Select 250 stocks with average market cap about 1,500 crore and another 250 stocks with market cap around 3,000 crore returned 25.2 per cent and 23.2 per cent respectively during the month.

"Despite persistent concerns around geopolitical tensions, rising crude oil prices, inflationary pressures, currency depreciation, and continued foreign institutional investor outflows, Indian equities delivered robust returns across the market spectrum," the report said.

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The rally occurred despite worsening macro indicators, reinforcing that equity markets are primarily driven by bottom-up fundamentals over time, it said.

The rally reflected a valuation re‑rating rather than an improvement in underlying business fundamentals, the firm added.

Dr. Vikas Gupta, CEO and Chief Investment Strategist, said the market is like a magician who distracts the investors using one hand pointing towards the macros while the real action is happening with fundamentals, growth and mispricing delivering returns.

Return on equity (RoE), leverage, and growth expectations remained largely unchanged across segments, indicating no sudden improvement in underlying business performance.

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Price-to-earnings (P/E) and price-to-book (P/B) multiples expanded significantly, suggesting markets are aligning valuations with existing fundamental strength after a period of caution, the report noted.

“Across the spectrum the market looks investible as long as the investors focus on companies with low leverage, high RoEs, high growth outlook and attractive valuations,” said Ashwini Shami, President and Chief Portfolio Manager.

Foreign institutional investors remained persistent sellers, with cumulative outflows of roughly Rs 1.75 lakh crore in CY26 so far, including roughly Rs 44,000 crore in April.