New Delhi, March 6 -- The Iran conflict has raised panic among retail direct investors who prefer investing in small and midcap stocks (Smids) and trading directly on the markets, unlike their mutual fund counterparts.

This is borne out by activity data released by the National Stock Exchange (NSE) for Monday, the first day after markets reacted to the outbreak of war in the Middle East.

It shows that retail investors sold shares worth Rs.3,508.51 crore, more than foreign institutional investors' (FIIs) outflows of Rs.3,070.55 crore, per NSE data. NSE had almost 93% share in the equity cash market as of January end, with the BSE accounting for the rest.

Data on investor activity for Wednesday and Thursday will be available with a lag. ...