Mumbai, Oct. 7 -- Instead of making retail investors richer, the small-cap rally may have left them nursing losses, while mutual funds weathered the choppy market better, according to a Mint analysis.

Small-cap stocks with the highest retail shareholding have performed poorly compared with those with the highest mutual fund shareholding, showed the analysis.

Out of the top 10 small-cap stocks with the highest retail shareholding, nine have given negative returns over the past year. Their losses range from 8.8% to 57%. The only stock to gain rose just 7.3%.

However, the performance was much better among small-cap stocks with the highest mutual fund ownership. Six of the top 10 stocks delivered positive returns, with gains ranging from 1...