Paytm shares fall below Rs 400 level, slip 3% as UPI market share drops in March

Paytm stock price: Shares of One 97 Communications Ltd (Paytm) slipped below Rs 400 level  in Wednesday's trade after the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) data suggested Paytm's market share has fallen to 9 cent in March from 11 per cent in February, the recent data available on website stated.  Data suggesting mutual fund, FPI and retail buying in Paytm in the quarter gone by could not lift sentiment on the counter.

Paytm shares fell 3.36 per cent to hit a low of Rs 390.85 on BSE. The Paytm stock last closed below Rs 400 level on March 27.

The fintech major processed around 1.2 billion UPI transactions in March, down from 1.3 billion transactions in February, and 1.4 billion in January. The decline came as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered shutting of operations of Paytm Payments Bank including deposits, credit products and digital wallets due to non-compliance. The NPCI later allowed Paytm to participate in UPI as a Third-Party Application Provider (TPAP) under multi-bank model.

Despite a 37 per cent drop in Paytm share price in the March quarter, data compiled from BSE and NSE showed domestic funds upped stake in the fintech firm by 1.17 percentage points or 6.15 per cent in the March quarter against 4.99 per cent in the December quarter, with buying seen from Mirae Mutual Fund and Nippon India Mutual Fund.

In the case of FPIs, the institutional class  owned 20.64 per cent stake in the company at the end of March quarter against 18.64 per cent in the December quarter, up 2 per cent. The FPI holding in Paytm fell 5.31 percentage points to 39.77 per cent from 45.08 per cent, following the SoftBank stake sale. SVF India Holdings (Cayman) (SoftBank) held 1.4 per cent as on March 31 against 6.46 per cent at the end of December quarter.