New-Age Tech Stocks Rise As Market Regains Momentum, TAC Infosec Biggest Gainer This Week

After going through a significant dip in recent times, the Indian public market carried the momentum of the last week of 2024 into the first week of 2025. In line with this, new-age tech companies largely witnessed a bullish sentiment. 

Twenty of the 31 new-age tech stocks under Inc42’s coverage gained in a range of 0.12% to over 10% this week. 

Just like the past few weeks, shares of NSE SME listed cybersecurity firm TAC Infosec ended the week at an all-time high of INR 1,410.55. This was a gain of 10.40% from the closing price of the shares on the previous Friday (December 27).

ideaForge emerged as the second biggest gainer this week, with its shares rising 9.86% to end Friday’s trade at INR 647.25. The stock is recovering steadily from the crash it witnessed after an underwhelming financial performance in the second quarter of FY25. After reporting a loss of INR 13.7 Cr in the quarter ending September 2024 in October, the company’s shares slipped to a 52-week low of INR 535.45 on October 29 

Other gainers this week included PB Fintech, Zaggle, Nykaa, FirstCry, Zomato, among others.

Meanwhile, 11 new-age tech stocks ended the week in the red. Shares of companies like IndiaMART, Swiggy, Delhivery, Yudiz, among others, fell in a range of 0.19% to a little over 15%. 

Logistics company BlackBuck saw the biggest decline this week, with its shares plummeting 15.02% to INR 453.35. The fall came after a grim projection by Morgan Stanley. The brokerage initiated its coverage on the stock with an ‘underperform’ tag, giving a target price (PT) of INR 450 per share on December 30. As a consequence, BlackBuck’s shares dipped as much as 5% to hit its lower price band of INR 506.85 on Monday. 

Another loser this week was online travel aggregator (OTA) EaseMyTrip, with its shares slipping 5.94% to end the week at INR 15.52. This was slightly above its 52-week low price of INR 14.23, which the shares touched in October. The reason behind the decline this week was stake sale by its cofounder and CEO Nishant Pitti, who offloaded 1.4% stake, or 5 Cr shares, for INR 78.3 Cr on Tuesday (December 31).

Following this, he also stepped down from the CEO position and his brother Rikant took charge on January 1. With the adverse market reaction to this move, Nishant addressed his departure on Friday through a post on social media platform X. The cofounder said that he won’t be selling any more stake in EaseMyTrip. 

Shares of Paytm tanked 3.15% to end the week at INR 982.30.

The bearish investor sentiment for Paytm stemmed primarily from the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) decision to extend the deadline for implementing a 30% cap on the market share of third-party app providers (TPAPs) by two more years. 

It is pertinent to mention that Paytm lost its market share in the UPI ecosystem in 2024. Its market share stood at 7.03% in 2024 as against 14.1% in the previous year. 

Shares of another fintech company MobiKwik also declined 4.59% this week to INR 599.70. The company is set to release its financials for Q2 FY25 next week on January 7. 

Meanwhile, the broader market rallied for the second straight week between December 30 to January 3. While Sensex gained 0.66% to end the week at 79,223.11, Nifty 50 gained 0.80% to end at 23,813.40. 

The primary reason behind this was the optimism around the upcoming earnings season. The rally was broad-based this week, with most sectoral indices posting gains.

Hrishikesh Yedve, AVP of technical and derivatives research at Asit C. Mehta Investment Intermediates, said that a buy-on-dips strategy is recommended as long as Nifty remains above 23,900.

As per Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services, global developments, along with Q3 results, will drive the market performance in the coming weeks.

“… the investors are likely to align their portfolios based on pre-Budget expectations. The key data points such as the FOMC minutes, US non-farm payroll and unemployment rate will influence market sentiment,” he said.

Now, let’s take a look at the performance of 31 new-age tech stocks this week. 

The total market cap of the 31 new-age tech companies under Inc42’s coverage stood at $98.68 Bn at the end of the week as against $98.42 Bn at the end of the previous week.

Ola Electric Facing Intense Competition 

Shares of EV major Ola Electric fell 8.14% to end the week at INR 82.76. The company’s market cap also dipped to $4.25 Bn. However, it was still higher from its IPO valuation of $4 Bn. 

The decline came after the company informed the exchanges on Friday (December 27) last week, after market hours, that its chief marketing officer (CMO) Anshul Khandelwal and chief technology and product officer (CTPO) Suvonil Chatterjee tendered their resignation with immediate effect. 

While the stock slipped about 5% early in the week, it took further hits after the EV sales figures for December were out. In what was a slow month, legacy automotive players Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor leapfrogged Ola Electric in December in terms of electric two-wheeler (E2W) sales. As a result, Ola Electric’s market share tumbled to 19% in December from over 24% in November.

It is pertinent to mention that the Bhavish Aggarwal-led company retained its top position in the E2W EV market in 2024. Its total EV registrations surged 52% to about 4.1 Lakh units in 2024 from 2.7 Lakh units in the previous year. 

PB Fintech Touches Fresh Highs

Fintech major PB Fintech was on a bull run this week, with its shares gaining over 7.93% to end at INR 2214.85. The stock touched an all-time high of INR 2,246.95 on Friday, before losing some gains. 

The rally came after the company intimated the bourses on January 2 that it has set up a new wholly-owned subsidiary by the name PB Healthcare Services Private Limited. The move was greenlit by the insurance major’s board last month.

Meanwhile, the company also got a relief on the tax front. In an exchange filing on January 3, PB Fintech said it has received an order from the Assistant Registrar of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in New Delhi, upholding all grounds of appeal filed by the company against a prior decision made by the Commissioner of Income Tax-Appeal (CIT-A). The tax amount in question was INR 166.12 Cr.