The corporate bottomlines story looks very good thus far, boosted by the power-packed performance of commodity firms and lower interest costs.

The aggregate net profit of 1,000 companies that have declared their March quarter results is up 56.13 per cent, riding on a 20.55 per cent growth in sales.

And here's the commodities hoist: net profit is up 500 per cent for 15 cement companies, 140 per cent for nine sugar firms, 93 per cent for 12 petrochemicals players, and 78 per cent for 13 paper sector entities.

That's not all. Interest costs were down nearly 15 per cent on average, while gross and net profit margins were up 150 basis points each. These 1,000 companies have now reported sales and profit growth in all the past four quarters.

Net profit growth has accelerated from 23.35 per cent in the first quarter of 2003-04 to 26.73 per cent in the second, 32.84 per cent in the third and to 56.13 per cent in the last quarter.

Similarly, sales growth, which was at 10.45 per cent in the first quarter, rose to 12.44 per cent in the second, touched 17.19 per cent in the third and stood at 20.55 per cent in the last quarter.

The net profit of 195 companies doubled in the March quarter, while 362 others have reported profit growth that's above the 1,000-company average of 56.13 per cent.

In terms of topline, 102 companies have clocked over 100 per cent growth, while 402 companies have beaten the 1,000-company average of 20.55 per cent.

As many as 118 companies from the telecommunications, fertilisers, chemicals, steel and metals sectors reported turnarounds during the quarter.