Paytm Shares Surge 11% In Two Trading Sessions As Broader Market Sees Slight Recovery

Shares of fintech giant Paytm jumped over 11% in two straight sessions since Tuesday amidst recovery in the broader Indian stock market, which was hit hard by the banking crisis in the US, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, and in Europe.

Shares of Paytm surged 6.9% on the BSE on Wednesday (March 22) to end the session at INR 624.55.

Despite the fintech startup reporting impressive performance in February, its shares were on a downward trend over the last two weeks, hit by the fall in the broader market.

Last week, Paytm said it disbursed 40 Lakh loans worth INR 4,158 Cr in February, registering a 86% and 254% YoY rise, respectively.

The Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company’s shares declined about 2.5% last week.

On Wednesday, a total of 1 Cr Paytm shares were traded together on the BSE and the NSE. The rise in Paytm’s shares on Tuesday and Wednesday was in line with the slight rebound in benchmark indices Nifty and Sensex during the trading sessions, ahead of the US Fed’s meeting that would decide on interest rate later today.

It must also be noted that last week Citigroup made bullish commentary on Paytm after its February performance update. The brokerage reiterated a ‘buy’ rating on Paytm with a target price of INR 1,061, implying almost a 70% upside to the stock’s last close.

Citigroup said that the valuations are attractive at the current market price and already prices in most of the downside risks.

“Its payments consumer and merchant base offers a large addressable market, thereby providing a long runway for growth. We continue to work with our partners to remain focused on the quality of the book,” it said.

After falling over 60% last year, Paytm shares are up around 17.6% year to date. Meanwhile, one of Paytm’s major pre-IPO investors, Alibaba.Com Singapore E-Commerce Private Limited, exited the company earlier last month.