 "IRCTC slumps over 5% as Railways cancels regular trains till August 12")
Shares of state-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) declined 5.6 per cent, in an otherwise firm market, to Rs 1,341 on the BSE on Friday after the Indian Railways cancelled all regular trains, barring the special Rajdhani and mail express trains announced by the Indian Railways during the Covid-19 induced lockdown, till August 12.
Earlier, the Railways had cancelled all passenger train tickets booked till June 30.
"It has been decided that regular time-tabled passenger services including Mail/Express, passenger and suburban services stand cancelled up to 12.08.2020... All tickets booked for the regular time-tabled trains for journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand cancelled. Full refund will be generated," the Railway Board said in a statement.
About 230 special trains and Shramik specials that have been announced during the lockdown will continue to operate, but normal trains that were cancelled till June 30 will remain inoperational till August 12 now, it said.
Indian Railways had resumed passenger train services with around 15 pairs of trains from 12 May, 2020. After Unlock 1.0, the national transporter is now running another 200 special trains since June 1.
Besides, IRCTC is set to report its March quarter earnings later in the day. According to analysts at Spark Capital, IRCTC could post net profit at Rs 133.5 crore for the quarter under review, a sequential dip of 35 per cent from Rs 206 crore logged in the previous quarter of FY20.
"Revenue is likely to decline 17 pr cent QoQ to Rs 594.3 crore compared to Rs 716 crore logged in Q3FY20. EBIT margins, meanwhile, are seen contracting by ~700bps QoQ," they wrote in their earnings preview note.
They estimate EBIT at Rs 166.4 crore, down from Rs 253.5 crore in Q3FY20.
At 10:26 am, the stock was trading 3 per cent lower at Rs 1,377.5 on the BSE, as against a 152 points, or 0.44 per cent, rise in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
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