Jio Financial shares tanked 7% today; firm says no talks with Paytm on wallet biz

Shares of Jio Financial Services Ltd (Ltd) were hit hard on Tuesday morning, a day after rallying 13.91 per cent, as the demerged entity of Reliance Industries Ltd said it was not looking to acquire the wallet business of One 97 Communications Ltd (Paytm).

JFS shares plunged 7.21 per cent to hit a low of Rs 268.20, before recovering some of the lost ground. The stock was still down 3.77 per cent at Rs 278.15 in the first 15 minutes into trading. Jio Financial called the media reports speculative and said it has not been in any negotiations in that regard.

Read more: Paytm, Jio Financial shares in focus after clarification on wallet biz

"We have always made and will continue to make disclosures in compliance with our obligations under the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015," it claimed.

Stock exchanges BSE and NSE had earlier sought clarification from JFS on the media report. Paytm also later clarified that the news reports were "baseless and factually incorrect." Paytm said it has been informed by Paytm Payments Bank Limited, its associate company, that they have not been in any negotiations in this regard.

Jio Financial Services is a holding company, which has a joint venture (JV) namely Jio Payments Bank. It is operating financial services business through consumer-facing subsidiaries such as Jio Insurance Broking (JIBL), Jio Payment Solutions (JPSL) and Jio Finance (JFL). Earlier today, a report by the Hindu BusinessLine quoting sources said Paytm was in exploratory talks with a few interested investors to sell the wallets business. It cited HDFC Bank and Jio Financial Services as the forerunners.

Also read: Paytm shares fall below Rs 400 level, down 10%; Jio Financial denies reports of wallet biz talks