New Delhi, Feb 12 : Small cap shares are down on Monday amid broad based selling pressure in the markets.

Infrastructure and PSU shares are also facing selling pressure in a weak market. Both the indices are down more than 3 per cent. BSE Sensex is down trading at 71,299.95 points down by 295.54 points or 0.41 per cent.

BSE Small Cap index is down more than 2 per cent. The top losers are Ramky Infrastructure down by 18 per cent, Andhra Petrochemicals down by 14 per cent, Amber Enterprises down by 11 per cent, Nahar Polyfilms down by 10 per cent, Hariom Pipe down by 10 per cent, Dhunseri Ventures down 9 per cent.

PSU shares are down sharply with the index falling more than 3 per cent. SJVN is down 17 per cent, Mishra Dhatu is down 10 per cent, ITDC is down 10 per cent, HUDCO is down 9 per cent, NBCC is down 9 per cent, IRFC is down 9 per cent, NHPC is down 9 per cent, Hemisphere Properties is down 8 per cent, RVNL is down 7 per cent, New India Assurance is down 7 per cent, MOIL is down 7 per cent, NLC India is down 7 per cent, IRCON is down 7 per cent.

V.K. Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services said with S&P 500 closing above 5000 for the first time, support from the mother market augurs well for the bulls. But the bears are likely to take cues from the rising US bond yields (10-year yield is at 4.17 per cent) which normally triggers big selling from FIIs. So the tug of war between the bulls and the bears is likely to continue.

However, the frothy valuations of the broader market are a matter of concern. From the long-term perspective, safety is in large-caps, he said.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be reached at Sanjeev.s@ians.in)

/IANS