India Inc earnings fall 22% in January-March of 2020 owing to legacy problems: Icra

19 Jun 2020 Evaluate

The rating agency -- Icra has said that earnings of India Inc dropped by nearly a fourth in January-March of 2020 as compared to the year-ago period due to legacy problems. The agency warned deeper impact in the June quarter due to Covid-19-induced lockdown. It said that absolute earnings of the corporate India contracted by 22 per cent and 12 per cent in Q4FY20 and FY20, respectively.  It mentioned that the financial performance of the Indian Corporate sector in Q4 FY20 was primarily hurt by consumer and commodity-linked sectors, both of which were impacted significantly as the pandemic started spreading rapidly.

Tepid realisations driven by softening commodity prices, coupled with subdued volumes in light of the pandemic outbreak and macroeconomic slowdown, resulted in revenue contraction for major commodity sectors, including oil and gas entities, metals & mining and iron & steel. The major impact on revenues came from commodity-linked sectors, which witnessed a contraction of 15 per cent in revenues on account of tepid realisations and subdued volumes. It added revenues in the consumer-oriented sectors fell by 9 per cent.

Besides, it said India was under lockdown for the past two months. It analysed 184 companies, excluding the ones in the financial sector, for the study. The study showed a 2.9 per cent revenue contraction during the March quarter when compared to the year-ago same period, and a 0.30 per cent dip in the operating profit margins to 16.8 per cent. It can be noted that with the onset of the pandemic, the investor class had got apprehensive about corporate earnings which resulted in a massive sell-off in equities.

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