A restaurant advertises the use of the Paytm digital payment system in Mumbai, India, on Saturday, July 17, 2021.
Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India’s digital payments app Paytm rose as much as 8% on Tuesday, rebounding from a heavy selloff that wiped off about $2.5 billion in market value in the last three sessions.
It comes after Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Financial Services denied media reports it was buying Paytm’s wallet business.
Paytm also dismissed the reports as “speculative, baseless and factually incorrect.”
Shares of Paytm, listed as One 97 Communications on India’s National Stock Exchange, lost $2.47 billion in market value amid the heavy selloff. The company had a market cap of $3.35 billion as of Monday’s close, according to LSEG data.
Paytm shares fell to record low territory on Monday, ending 10% lower, after losing 20% each day on Thursday and Friday. On Tuesday, the stock rose as much as 8% before paring back gains.
The market rout came after the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday ordered Paytm Payments Bank to stop accepting fresh deposits in its accounts or its digital wallet from March.
Hindustan Times reported Monday that Jio Financial, owned by Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance, would acquire Paytm’s wallet business. The report sent shares of Jio Financial up as much as 16.5% on an intraday basis yesterday.
Jio Financial issued a statement to the exchange late Monday to confirm it was not in talks to buy Paytm’s digital wallet business.
“We clarify that the news item is speculative and we have not been in any negotiations in this regard,” the company said.
Paytm added: “We have not been in any negotiations in this regard.”
Shares of Jio Financial were 4.4% lower on Tuesday.
