Equity investors should thank cash-rich biggies such as TCS, ITC, HUL, Nestl, and Bajaj Auto for this.

Though India was under lockdown for only seven days of the quarter, global demand and commodity prices began falling from February as COVID-19 was spreading in other countries. 1,002 listed companies - excluding banks, non-bank lenders, insurers, brokerages, and IT firms - reported a combined pre-tax loss of around Rs 2,700 crore during Q4.

In the last five years, imports from HK have more than tripled -- from $5.6 billion in FY15 to $17.1 billion in FY20. In the same period, exports declined by 20 per cent -- from $13.6 billion in FY15 to $10.8 billion (annualised) in FY20.

The trend in corporate earnings suggests that index earnings could fall to the levels last seen in early 2014.

Combined profit before tax of 81 firms down 37.5% y-o-y, worst show in at least 3 years.

RIL, however, remains miles ahead of TCS in other financial parameters such as total revenue, operating profit, net worth, assets, and market capitalisation.

Corporate revenues will decline for a third consecutive quarter in March on a YoY basis - one of the worst shows by these companies in many years.

Indians face COVID-19 with record debt, stalled income.

Profitability and cash reserves have halved since the global financial crisis.

The combined market capitalisation of the top 873 family-owned companies was down 26.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 61.8 trillion at the end of trading on Tuesday. It had grown 6 per cent in FY19 and nearly 20 per cent in FY18.

Some of the top indebted companies likely to face financial headwinds in the coming quarters include NTPC, PowerGrid, Tata Steel, Adani Power, JSW Steel, UPL, and Steel Authority of India. Together these 201 companies owed Rs 14.9 trillion to their lenders at the end of September 30, 2019, up 4.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) during the first half of FY20.

In the manufacturing sector, output is expected to decline by about 70 per cent as only food-processing, and drugs and pharma industries are allowed to operate while other segments, such as engineering and metals, have shut operations.

The Indian rupee is down nearly 2 per cent against the US dollar since the beginning of January 2019. Experts attribute the Indian rupee's relatively poor performance to a sharper-than-expected fall in economic growth in India.

The country's top FMCG stocks, such as Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Nestl, Britannia, Godrej Consumer Products, and Dabur, among others, are currently trading at around 41x their trailing 12-month earnings, down from their peak P/E multiple of around 48x at the end of December 2018.

Richest 10 account for 41% of promoter wealth, up from 33% in December 2018, says Krishna Kant.

The Sensex is on course to ending calendar year (CY) 2019 at a price-earnings (P/E) multiple of 29x, the highest in 25 years. Current valuations are, however, lower than those seen in the early 1990s. The Sensex has risen close to 14 per cent in the last 12 months, while the index underlying EPS dropped 6.7 per cent during the period.

The company has a valuation of Rs 2.22 trillion, up from Rs 1.33 trillion a year ago.

In Friday's market rally post the corporate tax cut, the country's top business promoters recouped more than two-thirds of the losses that they suffered in the post-Budget sell-off in equity markets.

The group firms reported combined losses of Rs 6,134 crore in FY19 against a net profit of Rs 5,414 crore a year ago. Excluding Vodafone Idea, the group reported a net profit of Rs 8,470 crore, down from a profit of Rs 9,582 crore a year ago.

These firms owe Rs 13 trillion to lenders and account for 55% of all non-financial corporate debt.