Times Business, which rather quaintly runs a money blog on Typepad, produces a few comparison stats to show that this is the case:

“In nearly eight days, the FTSE 100 list of top companies is down around 6 per cent, while the Small Cap index has fallen by nearly 7 per cent. But the big falls have been in the FTSE 250 index of middling companies, off 9 per cent, and on the Alternative Investment Market, which has slumped by more than 10 per cent.”

This shows that “the shares that have flown highest this year, the mid-250 stocks and those on AIM, have been burned most.”

There appears to be a consensus among analysts that certain sectors are looking overblown for smaller companies, for example, oil and gas, mining, property and general financial. “They could be badly hit if, as one or two speakers suggested, the whole stock market continues to look sickly for the next several weeks or even months.”