SBI Cards grapples to reclaim listing price as Coronavirus roils global markets

SBI Cards and Payment Services, one of the most talked about debut on bourses this year, has become the latest victim of the coronavirus pandemic which has roiled markets across the world.  Share price of SBI Cards has fallen below its listing price, thus causing loss to investors who held on to the scrip after its listing on March 16.

On Thursday, the stock ended 2.68% higher at Rs 594 against previous close of Rs 579.35 on BSE.

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On March 16, the stock made its debut at Rs 658 per share on BSE against the issue price of Rs 755 per share on BSE.  On NSE, SBI's credit card arm made its debut at Rs 661, a discount of 12.45% to the issue price. Currently, the stock stands at 9.72% below its listing price on BSE. On NSE, the stock stands  at Rs 593.15, down 10.28% from its listing price.

On March 20 (Friday), the stock stood at Rs 724.20 on BSE. However, it fell to Rs 583.35 on March 23 when Sensex and Nifty logged their biggest losses in a single session ever. In a single session, the stock lost 19.44% to fall below its listing price of Rs 658 on BSE.

Later, the large cap stock attempted a recovery but came under selling pressure to trade below Rs 600 level last week.

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The stock surged from Rs 583.35 on March 23 to Rs 655 on March 27 , logging a gain of 12.28% but could not hold on to gains. It fell to Rs 590.45 on April 3 and since has struggled to cross Rs 600 level since then.

SBI Cards IPO, which was held from March 2 to March 5, was subscribed 26.54 times on its last day despite weak market conditions. The IPO which initially attracted lot of investor attention could not deliver listing gains due to crash in global and domestic markets. Global and domestic markets had started feeling the effect of slowdown due to rising number of coronavirus cases across the world.

SBI Cards IPO hit the market when Nifty was down 8% and Sensex had lost over 7% since the beginning of this year.

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