Listed private sector non-financial entities have reported a growth of 1.9 per cent in sales in the July-September quarter, the Reserve Bank of India said on Wednesday. This follows near-stagnation seen in the first quarter of the current financial year.
At the aggregate level, these companies have reported a higher net profit as interest rates remained unchanged.
Net profit at the aggregate level recorded a growth of 16 per cent compared with 11.2 per cent in the previous quarter. Among the sectors, manufacturing continued to record high net profit growth, whereas services (Non-IT) sector continued to witness contraction in net profits but at a much lower rate.
However, operating profits decelerated on the back of increase in raw material prices as there was a pause in the trend of falling commodity prices, RBI said. Operating profit decelerated to 5.5 per cent in Q2 from 9.6 per cent in the previous quarter.
“Sales growth (year-on-year) improved significantly (3.7 per cent) for the manufacturing sector after contraction in sales in the previous quarter. However, sales of the services (Non-IT) sector continued to contract and IT sector witnessed deceleration of sales growth,” the central bank said.
RBI has said sales growth of companies in the iron & steel sector improved in the second quarter after contraction in the previous six quarters while that of petroleum product companies continued to contract but at a much lower rate than what was recorded in the previous quarter.
“Pricing power measured by net profit margin increased significantly in Q2 as compared with the previous quarter. It improved across all sectors, but for the IT sector, the net profit margin of which was lower than what was recorded in the second quarter of the previous financial year,” RBI said.
