Coronavirus hits consumer trends: Brokerage cuts entire sector rating, withdraws buy calls on shares

Taking note of medium-term headwinds that the consumer staples and discretionaries are likely to experience, brokerage and research firm ICICI Securities has downgraded the entire sector to neutral and has withdrawn ‘buy’ calls for all the stocks covered. The brokerage said that macro-economic impact and category-specific trends are likely to impact the sector in the medium-term. “We believe that the ongoing crisis is likely to lead to a reset of excess consumption across categories,” ICICI Securities said in a research note on the sector. The expected weak macros in the medium-term owing to the coronavirus pandemic, impulse purchases are expected to drop, leading to a shift towards purchasing essential products.

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