One hundred and eighty-six companies, which have announced their third quarter results till today, have posted net profit growth of 13.09 per cent for the quarter ended December 2005.
Fourteen quarters back, in the quarter ended March 2002, the same set of companies had posted net profit growth of 9.48 per cent. During this period, the lowest profit growth posted by these companies was 14.4 per cent, recorded in June 2002.
The list of early birds includes manufacturing and services companies and not banks and non-banking finance companies.
The slowdown in the growth of net sales - which began during the quarter ended September 2005 - has continued during the third quarter too, with 186 companies posting net sales growth of 16.27 per cent.
During the quarter ended September 2005, the sales growth rate of these companies was higher at 24.86 per cent.
The profit margins of these early birds remained under pressure with the operating profit margin declining 108 basis points to 22.61 per cent, gross profit margins by 113 basis points to 19.87 per cent and net profit margins by 115 basis points to 12.09 per cent. One basis point is one hundredth of a per cent.
If one excludes Reliance Industries and TCS from the sample, the early birds' net profit growth rate stood at a healthy 33.81 per cent and the sales growth rate at 24.23 per cent.
Reliance's net profit for the quarter ended December 2005 declined by 15.1 per cent while TCS showed a modest net profit growth of 5.57 per cent.
The growth in profits of 186 companies was driven by BEML, Infosys Technologies, Bajaj Auto, Bharat Forge, Shree Cement, Sintex Industries, Wipro, Maharashtra Seamless, Jubilant Organics, Deccan Chronicle and ABG Shipyard.
The early-bird performance shows that cement, auto ancillaries, hotels, engineering, textiles and construction have done well with robust growth in net profit. Oil and gas, fertilisers, steel and sugar have so far posted a decline in net profit during the quarter.
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