MUMBAI, Aug. 27 -- Retail investors who had been warned for two years about midcap and smallcap valuations found themselves on the right side of a record by August 2026. The Nifty Midcap 100 closed at an all-time high of 64,162.9 on August 25. Five days earlier, the Nifty Smallcap 100 reached 19,978. The benchmark Nifty 50, heavy with the banks, IT exporters, and energy conglomerates that dominate the large-cap earnings pool, remained 7.6 percent below its own all-time high, still processing a profit cycle running at a fraction of the broader market's pace.

The gap between those endpoints traces directly to Q1 FY27 earnings. India's smallcap companies delivered profit growth of 30 percent in the three months ended June 30, 2026. Midcaps ...