One 97 Communications SHARES SEES 31% UPSIDE

Paytm shares have significantly outperformed the broader Indian equity market in 2026, and brokerage firm Nomura sees further upside potential for the fintech major. Initiating coverage on One 97 Communications, Paytm’s parent company, Nomura has assigned a ‘Buy’ rating with a target price of Rs 2,250 per share, implying an upside of 31.4% from Wednesday’s closing price. Paytm shares were trading 0.7% lower during Thursday’s morning session, giving the company a market capitalisation of approximately Rs 1.09 lakh crore. Despite the decline in the latest session, the stock has gained 31.6% so far in 2026, significantly outperforming the Nifty 50, which has fallen 12.4% over the same period. The projection reflects the brokerage’s expectations of improving operating leverage as the company scales its business. Stronger profitability and the potential for sustained earnings growth underpin Nomura’s positive outlook on the stock. Earlier this week, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) deferred the implementation of the proposed Unified Payments Interface (UPI) merchant discount rate (MDR) framework until after Diwali. The announcement initially triggered a sharp selloff in fintech stocks, including Paytm, Pine Labs and One MobiKwik Systems. However, the stocks subsequently recovered some of their losses. The proposed framework, announced in September, introduces transaction-based charges for certain merchant UPI payments, potentially creating a new revenue stream for payment service providers. Under the proposed structure, a 0.4% MDR would apply to person-to-merchant UPI transactions exceeding Rs 2,000, with charges capped at Rs 300 for transactions of Rs 75,000 or more. The charges would be borne by merchants rather than consumers. Merchant payments: Eligible person-to-merchant UPI transactions above Rs 2,000 would attract an MDR of 0.4%, subject to the specified cap.