Awash in red

Covid-19 has deeply impacted corporate earnings

The quarterly results of a large sample of 1,502 listed companies indicate devastation all around. Year-on-year net sales in April-June 2020 have declined 24.7 per cent to Rs 15 trillion from around Rs 19.96 trillion in the corresponding quarter in 2019. Profits after tax (PAT) have fallen 62.7 per cent to Rs 46,922 crore from the earlier Rs 1.26 trillion. Operating profits are down 15 per cent overall. If the highly volatile banking sector, refineries, and non-banking financials are excluded from the sample, the severe impact of the lockdowns becomes clearer. The other 1,306 companies have reported a 26.6 per