A total of 635 companies have declared their third-quarter results and reported 22 per cent rise in revenue and 47.3 per cent growth in net profit on an average.
Bharti Airtel and Larsen & Toubro may have struck a jarring note by turning in disappointing results, but India Inc as a whole has done fairly well so far in the third quarter ending December 2009.
The managers see Sensex trading at a P/E of 16.
Manufacturing sector suffers from project delays, lack of fresh capital.
Sales are expected to grow at an average of 14 per cent on the back of a strong show from automobiles, auto ancillaries, construction, capital goods, metals, refineries, metals and sugar.
The BSE metal index tops the sectoral gainers list with an appreciation of 233 per cent.
This year was the best since 1991, with benchmark indices rising over 100 per cent from their March lows.
India Inc is likely to post a whoping 63 per cent growth in net profit in the second quarter, thanks to four oil marketing companies which are expected to post a combined net profit of Rs 2,730 crore (Rs 27.30 billion) in the quarter ended September.
The morning doesn't always show the day. After the early birds surprised many with their decent increase in net profits, a detailed analysis of the performance of 2,088 manufacturing and services sector companies (excluding banks and finance firms) shows that net profit has indeed gone up -- but only just.
From a single private firm with a Rs 1,000-crore (Rs 10 billion) net profit, there are 28 such companies now.
Operating margins improve, but sales still sluggish
The 193 companies have proposed a dividend payout of Rs 16,764 crore (Rs 167.64 billion) for 2008-09 on a net profit of Rs 92,412 crore (Rs 924.12 billion) compared to Rs 15,328 crore (Rs 153.28 billion) paid on a net profit of Rs 84,790 crore (Rs 847.9 billion) earned in 2007-08.
The net sales of these outperformers grew by 57.7 per cent, while their net profit rose by 69 per cent in the nine months of the current financial year over the same period of the previous year.
The poor performance of the corporate sector in the current financial year is reflected in the fact that the number of sectors posting net losses has more than doubled quarter-on-quarter -- from seven in the first quarter to 15 in second to 37 in the third quarter.
Foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) are proving to be a double-edged sword with large premiums simply vanishing on account of bear markets and the ghost of redemption at yield-to-maturity (YTM) hanging on.
As many as 2,431 firms in manufacturing and services sectors post their biggest-ever net profit decline of 42.45 per cent.
There are very few takers for B Ramalinga Raju's astounding claim that the margin earned by Satyam in the quarter ended September 2008 was just 3 per cent, and not 24 per cent as reported in the results.
Once criticised as inhibitory, India's strict regulatory norms have protected local banks from the global financial tsunami.
The global credit crisis has slowed order growth of Indian construction and engineering companies, indicating that several big projects, planned earlier, are being pushed back either for lack of capital, or because they have become unviable now.
The Sensex recorded its second-worst fall since January this year and the biggest single-day percentage fall of 11 per cent in the last 16 years. It has been an October that can be best forgotten. In the last three weeks, the Sensex has shed a third of its value.
