Whether you're a shareholder or just watching on the sidelines, the Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) share price has likely been a frustrating experience for everyone.
Zip has steadily trended lower this year, consistently making lower highs and lower lowers since mid-February. It briefly hit a year-to-date low of $6.06 on 21 September, likely influenced by the broad-based selling taking place as a result of China's Evergrande crisis.
Encouragingly, the Zip share price has managed to stay out of trouble lifting 13.3% to $7.23 in the last five trading sessions.
What's driving the Zip share price?
BNPL sector holding up
On the big end of town, the Afterpay (ASX: APT) share price has managed to hold up after Square's massive $39 billion takeover offer. Afterpay shares are not far off a 6-month high, closing at $129.53 on Monday.
On the more speculative side, stragglers such as Openpay Group Ltd (ASX: OPY), Splitit Ltd (ASX: SPT) and Laybuy Holdings Ltd (ASX: LBY) have finally stopped free-falling, bouncing off recent year-to-date lows.
Over on Wall Street, the Affirm Inc (NASDAQ: AFRM) share price has surged 89% since 27 August, after the company posted an upbeat fourth quarter earnings result and inked a deal with Amazon.
The more upbeat performance across the BNPL sector is likely good news for the Zip share price.
Zip enters India
Zip announced its entry into India via a strategic US$50 million investment in India-based BNPL provider, ZestMoney.
According to the release, ZestMoney is one of the largest BNPL platforms in India with 11 million registered users and over 10,000 online merchants.
Chief Executive of ZestMoney, Lizzie Chapman said that she strongly believes that India will emerge as the world's largest BNPL market in the next five years.
Similarly, Zip said that India "has the potential to become one of the largest markets globally and by FY2026 is forecast to have US$300bn."
The Zip share price rose 4.33% to $6.51 on the day of the announcement.
