Vakrangee hits 10% upper circuit on RBI's in-principle nod to set up BBPOU

Shares of Vakrangee hit the upper circuit of 10 per cent at Rs 27.10 on the BSE on Friday, after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) granted in-principle authorisation to set-up and operate Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU).

The trading volumes jumped 1.5 times, with a combined 1.7 million equity shares were changing hands till 02:58 pm. There were pending buy orders for 802,000 shares on the BSE and NSE, the exchange data show.

“The company has been granted In-principle authorisation to set-up and operate Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007 from Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Vakrangee can now directly handle payment and aggregation of payment services relating to bills under the scope of BBPS,” Vakrangee said in a press release.

Adding: "Nextgen Vakrangee Kendras exclusively offers a comprehensive range of products and services across banking, insurance, ATM, Financial Services, Assisted e-Commerce, e-Governance and logistics. With 70 per cent of its Nextgen outlets in Tier-5 and 6 towns, Vakrangee shall have direct access to operate as an operating unit under the BBPOU and shall provide the Bill Payment service to its customers in the most remote and hitherto unserved/underserved parts of the country."

Despite the 10 per cent surge on Friday, the stock has underperformed the market by falling 19 per cent in past three months, as against 7 per cent rally in the S&P BSE Sensex. The stock had hit a multi-year low of Rs 17.10 on April 7, 2020. It had hit a 52-week high of Rs 56 on January 28, 2020 and an all-time high of Rs 515 on January 24, 2018.