Sri Lanka, Oct. 22 -- The long overdue earnings report card of listed corporates for the January-March quarter is finally here, with only 266 companies filing interim results so far, reporting a 51.9 percent slump in cumulative earnings from a year earlier but the banks, food staples and retail sectors held out as they served the essential functions of the economy, even amid the coronavirus-induced lockdowns. According to First Capital Research (FCR), the listed entities reported a total of Rs.33.6 billion in earnings for the quarter ended in March, recording the worst slump in quarterly results in recent times.

However, if the March earnings report card is considered bad, the April-June is expected to be worse, as nearly a half of the t...