Shares of PB Fintech, Policybazaar’s parent, staged a sharp rebound on Thursday after sliding in the previous two sessions. The stock surged as much as 11.77 per cent to hit a day high of Rs 447.80 from its previous close of Rs 400.65. It eventually settled the day at Rs 432.20 on BSE, up 7.87 per cent.
A total of 51.97 lakh shares changed hands today, amounting to a turnover of Rs 211.82 crore. The company’s market capitalisation (m-cap) stood at Rs 19,427.38 crore.
Experts largely attributed today’s rebound to insurance regulator IRDAI’s comments on the removal of specific caps on commissions to agents and an expected “technical bounce back” after trading in the oversold zone.
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AK Prabhakar, Head of Capital, IDBI Capital, said: “Shares of Policybazaar surged in response to IRDAI’s comments. The insurance regulator has issued draft norms to remove specific caps on commissions to agents. The cap removal would help insurance companies sell more products, which is why PB Fintech (Policybazaar’s parent) is also rising.”
The insurance regulator, in a revised draft, has proposed that the commissions payable under general insurance products, including health insurance products offered by general insurers and health insurance products by standalone health insurers, should not exceed the expense of management (EoM) limits specified by the regulator.
IRDAI has proposed a single management expense limit of 30 per cent of gross premium written in a financial year in the case of general insurers and 35 per cent for standalone health insurers.
Pavitraa Shetty from Tips2trades, said, “After a massive fall in all the new age start-up IPOs (including PB Fintech), a technical bounce back was expected as these stocks had become very oversold. Investors can buy only on a daily close of above Rs 424.5 for targets of Rs 456-472 in the near term.”
She added that the Rs 400 level would act as strong support for the stock.
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Most of the new-age tech stocks, which came under intense pressure recently, recovered some lost ground today in line with the positive global trend.
PB Fintech made a decent debut at the exchanges in November last year, listing at Rs 1,150, a premium of 17.35 per cent over its issue price of Rs 980. At the day’s high of Rs 447.80, the scrip was down 54.3 per cent over its IPO issue price. It plunged to a record low of Rs 356.20 earlier this month (November 17).
Meanwhile, Indian equity benchmarks surged for the third straight session to hit record closing highs, led by gains in IT, financial services and energy stocks.
