Shares of Jio Financial Services Ltd fell on Tuesday, February 5, after it denied reports claiming that the demerged entity of Reliance Industries Ltd was looking to acquire Paytm’s wallet business.

On the other hand, shares of Paytm’s parent company, One 97 Communications, jumped as much as 8%, recovering from a nearly 40% fall in the last three trading sessions attributed to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) restrictions on the company’s payments bank business. 

Jio Financial’s share price closed 6.54% lower at Rs 270.20, while Paytm’s shares closed at Rs 452.80, 3.26% higher than its previous closing price on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). 

Several reports surfaced on Monday, claiming that Paytm was in exploratory talks with a few interested investors to sell the wallets business and that HDFC Bank and Jio Financial Services were the forerunners.

Jio Financial issued a statement to the exchanges to confirm that it has not been in any negotiations to buy Paytm’s digital wallet business. The Reliance Group Financial Services denied media reports, calling them speculative. Paytm also later dismissed the news reports and said they were “baseless and factually incorrect.”