Cash volumes hit record low on higher cost & global rout

Apart from the difficult macroeconomic conditions that have kept foreign institutional investors (FIIs) away and resulted in an erosion in market capitalisation, high transaction costs in the cash segment compared with those for the F&O segment, have kept investors away. The steep fall in prices of small cap stocks has also hurt volumes; the BSE Mid Cap index has given up 34% this year while the BSE Small Cap index has yielded 43%.