The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) latest analysis has showed that aggregate sales of private sector manufacturing companies recorded a sharp contraction of 41.1 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020-21 (Q1FY21), reflecting the impact of the pandemic induced lockdown. It said the data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the first quarter of 2020-21 has been drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,5361 listed non-government non-financial (NGNF) companies.
As per the analysis, aggregate sales of 1,619 manufacturing companies recorded a sharp contraction of 41.1 per cent (Y-o-Y) in Q1:2020-21 following 15.6 per cent decline in Q4:2019-20 reflecting the impact of the pandemic induced lockdown. The contraction was broad-based and varied across industries - only pharmaceutical companies recorded higher sales on both annual and sequential (Q-o-Q) basis. Non-IT services companies also registered a sharp contraction of 41 per cent in their nominal sales. The contraction was across services except for telecommunication companies.
On the other hand, the sales growth of IT sector companies remained in positive terrain but moderated to 3.2 per cent in the April-June quarter of the fiscal on annual basis. It further said lower business operations led to decline in the operating profits of manufacturing and non-IT services companies, while operating profits of IT companies, on the other hand, increased 9.4 per cent during the first quarter. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Securities and Exchange Board of India had extended the deadline for submission of financial results for Q1:2020-21 by listed companies to September 15, 2020.