Funds ride tiny companies to big gains

It's been a happy half year for micro-cap funds that invest in small technology companies. Micro-caps are firms with market capitalization below $300 million.

The Schroder Micro Cap fund is up 80 percent, the highest of any domestic-stock fund for the first half of 2000. And Kopp Emerging Growth, which had most of its portfolio in technology, was up 54 percent.

But micro-caps weren't the only winners. Mid-cap growth and small-cap growth funds also made impressive strides thanks to heavy technology investments, according to Chicago-based fund-tracker Morningstar Inc. Most large-cap value funds, however, have been hammered with losses this year.

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