🌍 Paytm shares plunge on market debut

A worker adjusts a hoarding of Paytm, a digital payments firm, in Ahmedabad, India, January 31, 2019. Picture taken January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Amit Dave
A worker adjusts a hoarding of Paytm, a digital payments firm, in Ahmedabad, India, January 31, 2019. Picture taken January 31, 2019. REUTERS/Amit Dave
Image: REUTERS/Amit Dave

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Here’s what you need to know

Shares in Paytm crashed on their first day of trading. The digital payments company’s owner, One97 Communications, went public today in India’s biggest-ever IPO. (See more below.)

Evergrande is raising another $270 million. The struggling Chinese real estate firm is selling its entire stake in streaming company HengTen, with a $150 million debt deadline looming tomorrow.

The US announced a plan to boost domestic vaccine production. An additional 1 billion doses could be manufactured every year.

You can soon repair your own iPhone. Apple will finally offer instructions and sell certain parts for iPhone 12 and 13, and later, Macs with M1 chips.

Joe Biden wants an investigation into gas prices. The US president asked the Federal Trade Commission to look into possible illegal behavior as the gap between unfinished gasoline and what drivers pay at the pump widens.

What to watch for

Paytm is one of India’s earliest startup success stories, and today launched its IPO. It hasn’t started well, as we’ve seen. The response from more sophisticated buyers was already muted, with some saying its valuation is too high for a company that has reported losses for the past eight straight years.

18,300 crore Indian rupees ($2.5 billion): Size of One97 Communications’ IPO

Rs1,596 crore: Paytm’s losses in the 2020-2021 fiscal year, a 40% reduction from the previous year

11%: Drop in Paytm’s revenue in the 2020-2021 fiscal year

28%: Ant Group’s stake in One97 Communications, making it the company’s largest shareholder; Alibaba has a 7% stake. Paytm has listed being seen as a “foreign owned and controlled” company as a risk in its IPO documents.

1: Female director at Paytm, alongside seven men on its board


An inflation pop quiz

Americans have been watching their grocery bills grow as the global economy struggles to iron out pandemic disruptions. In October, inflation hit its highest annual rate in 30 years: 6.2%. But what does that look like in the grocery aisle?

A gallon of whole milk cost $3.38 last year, on average, in US cities. How much are Americans paying now?

A. $3.21
B. $3.66
C. $3.91
D. $4.15

The correct answer is B. The price of milk has gone up $0.28 this year.

Test your knowledge of 10 more food items with our interactive grocery inflation quiz.


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