Jio Financial Services (JFS) Shares Fall on Trading Debut, Valued at $19 Billion – Reuters

Shares in Jio Financial Services (JFS), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, fell by as much as 5% on their trading debut on Monday. The company’s stock opened at 262 rupees and dropped to a low of 248.90 rupees, resulting in a valuation of 1.58 trillion rupees ($19 billion). Despite this initial decline, analysts believe that JFS has an advantage in India’s financial services sector due to its access to data from Reliance’s telecom, digital, and retail businesses. JFS has already formed a joint venture with BlackRock Inc. to launch asset management services in India, with an initial investment of $150 million each. During the listing ceremony, non-executive chairman KV Kamath stated that JFS aims to be a full-service financial services player. Reliance had spun off JFS last month, with the stock price set at 261.85 rupees. Shareholders of Reliance Industries received one JFS share for every Reliance share as part of the de-merger. JFS is included in major global indices like FTSE and India’s Nifty 50 index due to its affiliation with Reliance Industries. However, it is set to be removed from some indices at the end of its third day of listing, based on exchange rules. Hitesh Kumar Sethia has been appointed as the chief executive officer, and Isha Ambani, daughter of Mukesh Ambani, has been named a non-executive director.