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Shares of payment aggregators Paytm, Pine Labs Ltd., and MobiKwik fell as much as 7% on Tuesday, October 13, after CNBC-TV18 reported exclusively that the rollout of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), originally scheduled for October 15, has been deferred.
Paytm fell as much as 7%, while shares of Paytm and Pine Labs also fell between 4% to 5% towards the lowest point of the day.
The CNBC-TV18 Newsbreak was soon confirmed, when the Payments Council of India (NPCI) officially put out a statement, saying that the rollout of the MDR has been deferred to a date post Diwali. This year, Diwali is scheduled to be celebrated in November.
NPCI's statement said that the revised date for the implementation of the MDR will be notified separately.
As soon as the NPCI shared clarity on one, that MDR will be implemented and is not being scrapped, and two, at a date immediately after Diwali, the stocks saw an equally sharp recovery from the fall as the street knew that this is only a small deferment and that the MDR will indeed be implemented going forward after Diwali.
Shares of Paytm recovered as much as 6% from the lows of the day, while those of MobiKwik and Pine Labs recovered all their losses and are now trading with gains.
The NPCI statement further said that the decision taken by the UPI and Services Steering Committee is keeping the festive season in mind.
Sources had told CNBC-TV18 that the deferment was done after traders and industry associations made requests to the government and the NPCI. Merchant bodies had flagged the potential impact of the MDR on small retailers and MSMEs, particularly during the festive sales.
Shares of Paytm have nearly recovered all their losses and are now trading 0.9% lower at ₹1,674.7.
Shares of Pine Labs are 6% off the lows of the day, currently trading with gains of nearly 2% at ₹165.93. The stock is already trading below its issue price.
Shares of MobiKwik, which are also trading below their issue price, have recovered all of their losses, and are trading with gains of 1.5% at ₹244.3 after the NPCI statement.
(The MDR Newsbreak by CNBC-TV18's Ritu Singh)
