Paytm, Zomato, Nazara Stocks Plunge: Q3 Results Impact Or Fears Of Russia-Ukraine War?

A day after the Joe Biden Administration in the US warned Russia of “severe consequences” in case of an armed invasion of Ukraine, there were some fears about a major crash for tech stocks such as Paytm, Zomato, Nykaa and others when markets opened on February 15.

While the US has insisted on a diplomatic solution to the issue, many fear Russia is on the verge of kicking off World War 3. Diplomatic talks are on to avoid the worst fate.

The developments have not spooked the market as much as one might have expected, even though many tech stocks opened the day worse off than the previous day’s close. Some of that could be down to the quarterly financial performance reported by the companies last week.

Zomato, Paytm Crash

Zomato, Nykaa, Paytm hit their all-time lows on the Bombay Stock Exchange in Monday’s intra-day trade (February 14).

Paytm’s stock was trading at INR 846.75 at 10:30 am on February 15, 2022, after opening the day at INR 872.05. The company’s share price fell by INR 26 (a drop of around 2.5%) in the early hours of trading.

One97 Communications Limited, the parent company, reported INR 1,456 Cr in revenue from operations for the most-recently concluded quarter of December 2021. This is almost a 34% rise from the year-ago period. Paytm’s losses grew by 64% from Q2 to INR 778.5 Cr.

Zomato, which had already seen a relatively big drop on February 14, also fell in the early trading hours to INR 77.85 after climbing to INR 84 in the first few minutes of the day. It also hit its all-time low of INR 77.50 during the morning trade.

The food delivery giant managed to narrow its losses by 81% in the Q3 of FY22 and posted a loss after tax of INR 67.2 Cr. In the quarter, it earned INR 1,112 Cr from its operations, a 82.5% jump from INR 609.4 Cr it generated during the same period in FY21.

Among the other major tech stocks, automobile marketplace CarTrade has seen a major decline over the past week. It has fallen to INR 619 from INR 704 in the past six trading sessions.

Nazara Sees Big Drop

Similarly, Nazara Technologies also crashed to INR 1,882.20 after opening the day at INR 1,919.75. The gaming and edtech company’s stock had plummeted dramatically on February 14 from INR 2,002 to INR 1,895, after it posted a 17% decline in profits to INR 14.8 Cr in the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, from INR 17.9 Cr in the same period last fiscal.

In contrast, Policybazaar (PB Fintech) braved the storm and managed to stay relatively flat in the early trading hours. The insurance and loans aggregator’s stock was hovering around the INR 781 mark and hit a high of INR 785 in the morning.

EaseMyTrip (Easy Trip Planners) also saw a relatively calmer opening to February 15, with its stock trading at INR 553.45. Though it must be noted that this is below the month-ago price of INR 577. The travel tech company is likely to see a rebound as and when international travel opens up for Indian passengers.

Overall, the stock market seems to have brushed aside the threat of a potential war with many traditional company stocks trading at 52-week highs. The 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) index was trading 182.73 points up at 56,588.57, while the 50-share NSE index was 44.45 points up at 16,887.25.

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