Eternal Ltd, the parent of Zomato and Blinkit, saw its shares come under renewed selling pressure in Tuesday's session, December 16, falling 5.3% to ₹282.65 apiece amid heavy volumes. Today’s sharp fall also marked the stock's worst intraday crash since July and snapped its three-day winning streak.
Eternal’s share price opened the session lower at ₹298.20 apiece, and selling pressure intensified amid a broader market sell-off, leading the stock to lose the entire three-day gains.
With today's drop, the stock has lost 4% in December so far, while for the year it is marginally up by 3.43%. As of 1:30 PM, a total of 43.9 million shares had changed hands on both BSE and NSE, which is double the daily average trading volumes.
Last week, a large block deal took place, with 5.3 crore shares, or about 0.54% of its equity, changing hands. This marks yet another major transaction in Eternal this year. In mid-November, two block deals involving nearly 90 lakh shares worth ₹279.25 crore hit the exchanges.
Earlier in June, 60.93 lakh shares were traded at an average price of ₹256, amounting to ₹156 crore. The steady flow of large deals underscores sustained institutional interest in Eternal, driven partly by its rapid scale-up and the growth momentum of Blinkit, its quick-commerce business.
Eternal share price under pressure since reaching new record high
Eternal’s share price has remained under pressure since reaching an all-time high of ₹368 in October, and the fall was further extended in the following weeks, especially after the Union government rolled out new labour codes. These raised concerns on the Street that the new rules could have a direct financial impact on aggregators.
The new rules increase the compliance burden on aggregators, which will now be required to contribute 1–2% of their annual turnover—capped at 5% of the amount paid or payable to gig and platform workers—towards social security benefits.
However, brokerages expect both companies to gradually pass on most of this additional cost to customers, adding that a ₹2– ₹3 increase per order is unlikely to materially affect user behaviour, given the recent absorption of similar platform fees.
India’s gig economy has ballooned over the past decade, thanks to the proliferation of online commerce and marketplaces such as Zomato, Swiggy, Uber, Amazon, and Flipkart.
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