Smaller companies stillstruggling to perform

Smaller companies have been struggling of late. The average fund in the Standard & Poor's smaller companies sector fell by 7.5% in the six months to 1 June 2001 while the FTSE 100 fell by only 4.4% in the same period. But David Lis, manager of the Norwich Union UK Growth fund, argues that performance has not been so bad over a longer period, especially when compared to what has been happening in the technology sector. Phil Harris, manager of the smaller companies fund at Credit Suisse, argues that poor recent performance was because small companies are more closely related to changes i...