Brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities expects PVR and Inox Leisure to report operating profits in the quarter ended December, a first in seven quarters.
Shares of PVR and Inox Leisure inched higher on January 11, after a member of the Maharashtra COVID-19 task force said that the surge in daily cases in the city was likely flattening, sparking hopes that restrictions may ease soon.
At 3:06pm, shares of PVR were up 3.16 percent at Rs 1,478.90 apiece on the National Stock Exchange, while Inox Leisure rose 1.55 percent to Rs 370. The benchmark Nifty50 index was up 46.85 points or 0.26% at 18,050.15.
Dr. Shashank Joshi, a member of the task force on COVID-19 created by the Maharashtra government said that the curve of Omicron cases in Mumbai was flattening. He further hinted that the city could report 11,000 to 12,000 cases today while test positivity rate could come down 20 percent from 30 percent earlier.
Mumbai had reported 13,648 cases on Monday, a sharp drop from the near 20,000 cases on Friday. The sharp surge in cases last week prompted the local authorities to impose strict restrictions on mobility to curb the spread of the highly infectious variant.
The city had banned the movement of individuals between 11:00 pm and 5:00 am while individuals were not permitted to move in groups of more than four between 5:00 am and 11:00 pm. The authorities had restricted capacity for theatres at 50 percent that too only for fully vaccinated individuals. Further, all theatres and malls were asked to close operations post 10:00 pm.
The restrictions came at a time when movie theatres had started to see an increase in footfalls aided by big-budget movies such as ‘Spiderman: No Way Home’ and ‘Suryavanshi’. Brokerage firm Edelweiss Securities expects PVR and Inox Leisure to report operating profits in the quarter ended December, a first in seven quarters.
Analysts suggested that the peaking of COVID-19 cases in the city is a positive sign for multiplex operators as it could lead to withdrawal of restrictions much earlier than expected. During the second wave, the local authorities lifted restrictions gradually in order to avoid another breakout of cases in the city.
“We expect multiplexes to resume full-fledged operations once the wave 3 subsides, which should be followed by quick revival of pipeline as well as footfall as seen in Q2FY22 and Q3FY22,” Edelweiss Securities said in a recent note.
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