Earnings drought

Corporate results would get a lot worse in the coming quarters

Even as the stock market has risen sharply over the last two trading sessions, corporate performance in the last quarter (January-March 2020) presents a dismal picture with a broad trend of lower revenues, lower profits, and lower margins. An analysis of the data of 295 listed companies shows that income, operating profits, and profit after tax (PAT) have declined by 1.8 per cent, 4.9 per cent, and 11.6 per cent, respectively, over the corresponding period last year. At a more granular level, if refineries and banks are removed from the sample, operating revenues for other sectors dropped 2.7 per cent,