Small Cap counters in Malaysia are favourite for retail investors. However, we should distinguish between low price stocks and small caps. There are many few sen counters with more than a billion shares. If a company with 2 billion number of shares and its share price is 5 sen, the market cap of the company is RM100 million. In contrast, a company with 100 million shares and share price of 20 sen is only having a market cap of RM20 million.
Due to the value of a listing status, which can be between RM10 million to RM30 million depending on situations, there is a case for buying into companies with low market cap, especially those below the shell value of a listed company (provided the company is no danger of getting into financial distress like GN3/PN17 etc.)
There are many ways to play small cap stocks. One way is to buy companies with small market cap. However, it can take a long time before the stock will move. Therefor it is good to have a basket of small cap stocks in your portfolio. Most likely these companies will perform at different time cycles and periods.
If you invest in one small cap stocks and sit on it, this is very risky. However, if you have more than 10 small cap stocks, your portfolio is less risky. And if you invest the stocks at the lower end of shell market capitalization, the chance to make money is high if you have the patient.
Alan Voon