Amid raising concern over a brewing bubble in small- and mid-cap stocks, ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company has stopped lumpsum investment mid- and small-cap schemes.

It has also restricted fresh SIPs/STPs to ₹2 lakh per month from March 14. The decision to temporarily discontinue subscriptions in the schemes has been taken by the trustees keeping the interest of the investors protected from sudden market movements, it said.

ICICI Prudential Trust has approved to temporarily discontinue subscriptions in the schemes of ICICI Prudential Midcap Fund and ICICI Prudential Small-Cap Fund from March 14 till further notice, said the fund house in a statement on Tuesday.

In this regard, it is further clarified that no transactions shall be accepted post cut-off timings (3 pm) of March 13, it added.

The limits on per PAN level basis will be ₹10,000 and ₹50,000 for daily and weekly SIPs and ₹1 lakh and ₹2 lakh for fortnightly and monthly SIP, respectively. Quarterly SIPs will be restricted to ₹6 lakh, it said.

Any transaction which will result in the breach of the above restriction will be completely rejected and will not be accepted partially, said the fund house.

However, the restriction will not affect SIP or STP registered prior to the effective date and the unitholders under IDCW Reinvestment Option.

ICICI Prudential Small-Cap Fund has an asset under management of ₹7,415 crore while the mid-cap fund has asset of ₹5,494 crore as of Monday. ICICI Prudential AMC joins the other leading fund houses such as SBI MF, Nippon India MF, Kotak AMC and Tata MF in restricting inflows into the small cap schemes.

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