'I think some of those companies are probably going to have a much more challenging time financing themselves and growing as time goes on,' he said. In particular, he said he thinks a pullback in monetary stimulus will hit particular sectors. Pay attention to fundamentals While he believes the Russell 2000 is near its bottom, Cunningham said he thinks some small caps will do worse than others. As it stands, the Russell 2000 Index - the small-cap benchmark - is down 15.1% this year, closely tracking the S & P 500's decline in the same period. He said big-cap companies have been 'outsized beneficiaries' of low interest rates, but rising rates and a de-globalizing world could tilt the balance toward small caps.

'Over longer periods of time, large caps and small caps have stayed in a fairly tight range with each other,' Cunningham told CNBC 'Squawk Box Asia' on Wednesday.

But Victor Cunningham, portfolio manager of Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund, suggested the divergence between small and big caps could be narrower than expected. The fund's performance is not indicative of small-cap stocks widely doing better than their larger counterparts.

The fund is down 4.5% year-to-date, according to FactSet data, convincingly doing better than the large-cap S & P 500, which has lost 12.9% in the same period. Small-cap stocks often fly under the radar when markets are volatile, but the Third Avenue Small-Cap Value Fund this year may change the way investors think about them.

Timer 40 minutes