Small cap index members are now changing rapidly

Corporate activity is continuing to underpin the strong rises made by smaller companies in the past 12 months. Overall in 1999 the FTSE Smaller Cap Index rose by 53.31% compared to a rise in the FTSE 100 of 21.05%. Year to date the smaller cap index is up 7.2% while the FTSE 100 is down 11.99%. Last year the growth in smaller companies, traditionally restricted to the first quarter, continued into the second quarter. John Alexander, manager of Henderson Smaller Companies investment trust, says: "Broadly speaking we regard the smaller companies index as a losers index with companies fallin...