Earnings growth in the early-bird sample has been driven by banks and iron & steel companies.
However, experts caution that investors should not expect the big returns they got from the sector between March and September 2020.
Together with its share buyback worth Rs 16,000 crore completed in January this year, TCS shareholders will receive a record Rs 30,250 crore from their company in FY21.
The earnings are, however, expected to be down around 2 per cent on a sequential basis due to pent-up demand getting exhausted and the adverse impact of rising metals and energy prices on consumer goods and manufacturing companies.
India Inc's cash pile was up 13.8 per cent last fiscal year, thanks to a combination of higher profits in sectors such as IT and fund raising by top companies such a Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors, among others.
Tata group companies have outperformed the broader market over the past four years, under the chairmanship of N Chandrasekaran. However, the group's fortunes rely heavily on the performance of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) now, as compared to the past. The combined market capitalisation of the group's listed companies has nearly doubled in the last four years, against a 77 per cent rally in the benchmark Sensex during the period. The overall market value of 16 key group firms - excluding listed subsidiaries of such entities - stood at Rs 16.8 trillion as of Friday. This was close to 2x the Rs 8.45 trillion as of February 21, 2017 - the day Chandrasekaran took charge as chairman of Tata Sons.
India Inc's quarterly net profit reached a record high of Rs 1.64 trillion in the third quarter ended December 31, 2020, mainly due to gains from higher commodity prices and a big swing in banks' earnings. The combined net profit of 3,323 listed companies that have declared results so far was up 68.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY). In comparison, earnings were up six times (534 per cent) in the second quarter and 6.5 per cent in the corresponding period last year.
The combined net sales of 42 listed construction and capital goods companies that have declared their third-quarter results so far were down 2.3 per cent year-on-year in Q3FY21 while core operating profit was up just 4.9 per cent YoY during the quarter.
Market cap of government companies has remained unchanged in the past 8 years.
BSE-listed companies' market capitalisation reached Rs 197.7 trillion on January 21, against India's nominal GDP of Rs 190 trillion during 12 months ended December 2020.
Over the three-month period, Airtel's stock price has rallied from Rs 432 to Rs 540, while Vodafone Idea has risen from Rs 9.2 to Rs 11.8 per share.
This is first time in 25 years that a benchmark equity index in India is trading at a P/E multiple of 40x or higher.
Tata Sons stake in the group's listed companies is now worth Rs 9.28 trillion, up 34.4 per cent on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In comparison, the Government of India's stake in listed central public sector undertakings (PSUs) is currently valued at Rs 9.24 trillion
More people seemed to be returning to their workplaces towards the end of the year, even as railway and electricity numbers disappointed. Most other indicators held on to their gains.
The growth was led by family-owned companies and business groups with presence in pharmaceuticals, information technology services, and consumer products.
Rs 1,000 now buys $13.5 against $14 a year ago.
Some analysts see more upside in FMCG stocks given the performance gap between the sector and the market.
Business Standard tracks pollution levels, goods ferried by the Indian Railways and consumer visits to various categories of places, in addition to power generation and traffic numbers to understand the fast-changing situation on the ground.
There is positive correlation between crude oil prices and Indian equities and investors can expect more upside after the recent rally in Brent crude price.
Not surprisingly, equity investors are bidding-up stock prices across sectors and the broader market is now more valuable than pre-Covid levels.