Shares of PVR, INOX, Burger King, Barbeque Nation tumble as investors panic over the new COVID-19 variant

• Nifty dipped below 17,200 and Sensex went below 57,500 as a new COVID-19 strain was found in Africa.
• Multiplexes and restaurants had noticed a recovery in their stock prices only a few months back.
• INOX and PVR stock dipped over 8%, whereas Barbeque Nation and Jubilant FoodWorks dipped over 3%.

The concerns over a new strain of COVID-19 virus has once again left the Indian stock markets under a lot of stress, with Nifty going below 17,200 and BSE Sensex dipping below 57,500. The stock prices of multiplexes, hotels and restaurants witnessed a sharp decline as retail investors expect the situation to worsen.

“The Indian benchmarks have a gap down opening today tracking weak Asian markets. Traders will be concerned as WHO [World Health Organization] flags the new COVID-19 strain,” Likhita Chepa, senior research analyst at CapitalVia Global Research said.

The new Coronavirus strain found in South Africa on Thursday followed by the lockdown across a few European countries have left a deep impact on the Indian stock markets.

Company	Sector	Stock price change
INOX Leisure	Multiplex	-8.21%
PVR	Multiplex	-10.89%
Barbeque Nation	Restaurant	-5%
Burger King	Restaurant	-3.70%
Speciality Restaurant (operates Mainland China)	Restaurant	-8.87%
Jubilant FoodWorks (operates Domino’s India)	Restaurant	-2.88%
Indian Hotels Company Limited	Hotel	-11.24%

Note: Share prices as of 3:30 p.m., on November 26

Notably, the multiplexes and restaurants had noticed a recovery in their stock prices only a few months back as people got more comfortable in stepping out of their house and getting back to the normal routine.

While restaurants were still operating both online and offline from June 2020 onwards, multiplexes had lost that option as well. It was only in October 2020 that the multiplexes were allowed to open in a staggered manner with a capacity of 50%. The industry had faced another hit in April-June 2021 as the country was battling the second wave of COVID-19.

“We believe India is not in panic mode and investors should make use of this selloff as a buying opportunity. The new variant should not be a great matter of concern for us and we suggest investors with suitable risk appetite to consider and start allocating money into markets who have missed the rallies,” Prashanth Tapse, vice president of Research at Mehta Equities, said.


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