Shares of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), PB Fintech and Delhivery have continued their southward journey, as shares hit their respective all-time lows in Friday’s intra-day trade, in an otherwise firm market.
Among individual stocks, shares of Delhivery tanked 19 per cent to Rs 382.75 per share, on the back of heavy volumes. In the past two days, the stock of the logistics solution provider plunged 31 per cent as it anticipates moderate growth in shipment volumes through the rest of the financial year 2023 (FY23). Moreover, the stock has fallen below its previous low of Rs 456.05, which it had touched on June 20.
With Friday’s decline, the stock price of the company has corrected 46 per cent from its record high level of Rs 708.45, which it had touched on July 21, 2022. Delhivery made its market debut on May 24. Currently, the stock trades at 21 per cent below its issue price of Rs 487 per share.
At 11:23 AM; shares of Delhivery traded 15 per cent lower at Rs 399.10 apiece, as compared to 0.65 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The average trading volumes on the counter jumped multiple-fold as around 10.32 million shares, representing 1.4 per cent of total equity of Delhivery, changed hands on the NSE and BSE.
In its July-September (Q2FY23) business update, Delhivery said that the consumer discretionary expenditure was muted due to high levels of inflation, with average user spends and total active shoppers flat or lower during the ongoing festive season, as per industry reports.
“We have made sufficient capacity investments in FY22 and early FY23 to sustain our current rate of growth and expect new mega-gateway and sorter decisions only by early FY24,” the company said.
That apart, shares of PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar, hit a new low of Rs 381.50 as shares declined nearly 5 per cent in intra-day trade on Friday.
In the past one month, the stock of this fintech company tanked 25 per cent, as against 0.19 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. PB Fintech’s pre-IPO shareholders’ lock-in expired on November 15, 2022.
PB Fitech traded at its lowest level since market listing on November 15, 2021. The stock price of the company is down 61 per cent against its issue price of Rs 980 per share. It has tanked 74 per cent from its record high level of Rs 1,470, which it had touched on November 17, 2021.
The group is primarily engaged to provide online marketing, consulting and support services through its online portal policybazaar.com and paisabazaar.com, largely for the financial service industry, including insurance.
Meanwhile, shares of state-owned insurance company, LIC, too, hit a new low of Rs 593.70 per share, down 1 per cent in Friday’s intra-day trade.
Currently, LIC trades 37 per cent below its issue price of Rs 949 per share and is at its lowest level since market debut on May 17, 2022. Since its listing, LIC has underperformed the market with a wide margin. In the past three months, it has declined 14 per cent, as against 7 per cent rally in the benchmark index.
With the changing external environment, customer preference, customer demographics and launch of innovative products, analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services expect that the large private insurers will deliver robust growth and grab market share from LIC.
“The structural factors challenging the industry growth are persistent low interest rates and pricing pressures aggravated by price comparison websites. Though many insurers have undertaken cost savings programs, the aggregate results are not very encouraging. Industry-wide, productivity improvements have been limited,” LIC said.