The result is in: World’s biggest lockdown has cost India millions of jobs, resulted in record low economic activity alongside fueling the biggest earnings decline in at least six years.
Point to be noted here is that profits at NSE Nifty 50 Index members drop about 15 per cent last quarter from the same period last year, the worst drop since at least 2014, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. On the other side of the coin, about two thirds of the firms in index have announced results for the March quarter so far. Communications, energy and industrials recorded the steepest declines on an adjusted basis.
If experts are to be believed, stay-at-home measures triggered by the coronavirus pandemic has kept most of India’s 1.3 billion population indoors since late March, leading to a collapse in business activities. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expects gross domestic product to contract 5 per cent in the fiscal year through March 2021, which would be India’s deepest recession ever.
