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    Bleeding red! Vodafone Idea, Paytm among 10 highest loss-making companies in Q2

    Synopsis

    In the hope of getting multibagger returns, many new investors often place bets on loss-making companies that may stage a turnaround later on. Market experts, however, warn against such hope trades and suggest focusing on companies with high growth visibility.

    Bleeding red! Vodafone Idea, Paytm among 10 most loss-making companies of Q2iStock
    NEW DELHI: By reporting a loss of Rs 7,562.8 crore in the September quarter, debt-ridden telecom player Vodafone Idea has turned out to be the highest loss-making company in India in Q2. The list of top 10 companies with the worst bottomline also includes HPCL, SpiceJet and Paytm.

    Out of the over 4,000 listed companies that have declared their numbers so far, over 1,100 are in red. Amid all the financial stress that Vodafone Idea is going through, shares of the company have fallen over 50% from their 52-week high level.

    Oil marketing company HPCL came out with the second-highest loss during the quarter at Rs 2,172 crore, shows ACE Equity data. The stock is down over 36% from its 52-week high.

    The list also includes two airlines - Interglobe Aviation and SpiceJet - which reported losses of Rs 1,585.49 crore and Rs 837.88 crore, respectively.

    PSU company Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL), which is a subsidiary of ONGC, registered a loss of Rs 1,789.14 crore in Q2 due to windfall tax imposed by the government. After hitting a 1-year high of Rs 127.60 in June 2022, the stock has fallen around 59% since then.

    Varroc Engineering, Macrotech Developers, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Jaypee Infratech were among other losers in the pack.

    One97 Communications, which runs Paytm, reported the tenth-highest loss of Rs 588.8 crore in Q2, shows the data. Although the fintech is confident of turning profitable by September 2023, the stock is down over 74% from its 52-week high.

    What should investors do?
    In the hope of getting multibagger returns, many new investors often place bets on loss-making companies that may stage a turnaround later on. Market experts, however, warn against such hope trades and suggest focusing on companies with high growth visibility.

    Vodafone Idea, for example, has sell ratings from 15 out of 19 analysts. Retail investors, however, appear to be hopeful of a turnaround as 28.57% of the company is owned by small investors.

    Banks and auto stocks are two sectors that many analysts are overweight on while others recommend buying the dip in IT stocks.

    "We believe rising NIM, strong credit growth and multi-year low NPA’s will continue to benefit banks and result in steady re-rating in coming quarters," Amnish Aggarwal, Head of Research at Prabhudas Lilladher, said.

    HDFC Securities prefers largecap banks, industrial and real estate, power, autos, pharma, gas, insurance, and capital markets and is underweight on consumer, energy, NBFCs, and small banks.

    Nuvama Institutional Equities has upgraded the sector recently to neutral owing to cash-rich nature of the business and reasonable relative valuations. "Demand outlook continues to remain resilient despite macro and geopolitical issues. Companies are watchful of the situation, although, don’t see any headwind in short term," it said.

    (With data inputs from Ritesh Presswala)

    (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)




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