Passive funds gaining market share – what are the implications for smallcaps?
We believe long-term, fundamental drivers – such as those addressed in our Q-Series report: Why do smallcaps outperform? – remain favourable for smallcaps, but liquidity issues are also important. In this report, we analyse the impact on smallcaps of the growth of passive funds. Small and midcap passive funds have gained substantial share: c30% of aggregated global smallcap funds are passive mandates, up from c15% a decade ago (though this is still below global largecap passive mandates at c50%).