Companies report best sales growth in 9 quarters

As anticipated, the performance of India Inc has been stellar so far in the September quarter following restocking of inventories after the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 1 and festive demand.

A sample of 354 companies excluding banks, finance, and oil and gas companies reported nine-quarter high sales growth of 11.5 per cent in the September 2017 quarter compared with the year ago.

At 12.7 per cent, net profit continued to grow in double-digits for the fourth consecutive quarter though at the slowest pace in as many quarters. Operating margin was stable at 20.5 per cent from the year ago.

The 62 companies in the sample from the retail consumer focused sectors such as automobiles, consumer durables, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), media and entertainment, hospitality, and retail posted four-quarter high sales growth of 10.2 per cent.

Operating profit grew at six-quarter high of 11.8 per cent. Net profit rose by 6.8 per cent on top of a strong 15.1 per cent growth in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.



The trend in the remainder of the quarter may vary depending upon the performance of companies in the sectors that have been lagging in growth momentum including capital goods, construction, power, and real estate. However, the overall growth is expected to be better than the previous quarter.