More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2025

 

By Anshul Choudhary

 

MUMBAI – Most sectors within the Nifty 200 index outperformed analysts' expectations on net profit, excluding exceptional items, or adjusted net profit, in the March quarter. Of the 19 sectors in the index, 13 outperformed analysts' estimates, while three underperformed, and the remaining three were in line with estimates.

 

Overall, the Nifty 200 companies reported a year-on-year growth of nearly 7% in adjusted net profit, sharply higher than the 1% growth estimated in an Informist Poll. Including exceptional income and cost, the net profit was up nearly 15%. The cumulative net revenue of the 200 companies was up nearly 6%, slightly better than expectations of 5.2% rise.

 

Retail sector was the top performer, which beat expectations by a wide margin during the quarter. The cumulative adjusted net profit of five retail companies was up nearly 90% on year as compared with expectations of a 57% rise. The telecommunications sector's net profit was also significantly higher at more than INR 67 billion in the quarter as compared with estimates of INR 11 billion.

 

Metal and mining, and infrastructure companies also topped estimates as both sectors reported a net profit growth of around 40?ch as compared with expectations of a 31% and a 22% rise, respectively. The energy sector reported muted earnings growth during the quarter, but these were still significantly above expectations. The 21 companies in the sector reported a year-on-year growth of a mere 3% in adjusted net profit, while analysts had anticipated a fall of 14% in profits for the sector.

 

Financial services, excluding banks, had a strong quarter with some of the largest companies in the sector reporting double-digit growth in profit. The adjusted net profit of 23 companies in the sector was up 23% on year as against estimates of a 9% rise. Growth in the net profit of banks was relatively slower at 4%, which was hit due to a large loss suffered by IndusInd Bank Ltd. However, growth in adjusted net profit for the sector was still better than the anticipation of a 1?ll.

 

Information technology companies' earnings were largely in line with analysts' expectations, who had forecast poor growth on risks that clients would cut spending due to threats from reciprocal tariffs by the US. The sector reported a net profit growth of 3% as compared with expectations of a 1% rise. The pharmaceutical and healthcare segment reported earnings along expected lines with adjusted net profit up 14% on year.

 

Consumer-facing sectors had a mixed quarter. While the automobile sector reported better-than-anticipated earnings, fast-moving consumer goods and consumer durables disappointed slightly. The automobile sector's performance was the worst among all sectors, largely skewed due to a dismal performance by Tata Motors Ltd. The 10 companies in the sector reported a sharp drop of 24% in adjusted net profit in the quarter, but that was still better than an anticipated fall of 31%.

 

Among other consumption-dependent sectors, fast-moving consumer goods companies reported a drop of 3% in net profit against hopes of a 1% rise. Consumer durables reported a 38% rise in net profit, but that fell short of expectations of a 42% rise.

 

Chemicals companies underperformed as their net profit rose only 8%. Analysts had hoped the sector's net profit would rise 17%.

 

OUTPERFORMERS

For retail companies, the nearly 90% growth in adjusted net profit was driven by Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, which managed to shrink its losses sharply, a low base of Trent, and cost control from Page Industries. However, demand continued to see a slowdown with sales growth at nearly 17%--the weakest quarterly performance in at least four years. The sales growth was also slightly lower than expectations of a nearly 19% rise.

 

Energy companies, which have an over 12% weightage in the Nifty 200 index, continued to face problems due to muted demand as cumulative sales of 21 companies rose a mere 3%. This was slightly better than analysts' expectations, who saw sales to be flat for the sector.

 

While sales growth was only marginally higher than expectations, the sector reported strong outperformance on the bottom line. Within the sector, companies focused on renewable energy reported strong profit growth, but the same was offset by a drop in profit of companies dependent on thermal power.

 

Analysts had predicted the cumulative net profit of 21 companies in the sector to decline nearly 14%, but these companies managed to report an adjusted net profit of 3%. Including the four companies in the sector, which did not have any analysts' estimates, net profit growth of 25 companies was 2%.

Among other large sectors, banks managed to report growth in net profit against anticipation of a marginal fall. Better asset quality helped banks outperform on net profit despite facing problems due to slower loan growth, Kotak Institutional Equities said in its earnings review report.

 

In the March quarter, provisions of these banks were down nearly 7%, which offset the impact of only 4% rise in net interest income--its weakest quarterly growth in at least four years.

 

The outperformance by banks and other financial companies, which have a weightage of over 33%, helped the overall index to show better earnings growth in the March quarter. The adjusted net profit growth of Nifty 200 earnings was 7%, but the same dropped to 5.6% for the 151 companies excluding financials.

 

Metal companies in the March quarter reported a sharp turnaround on strong demand for both ferrous and non-ferrous products in India and cost-controlling measures. The seven metal companies' adjusted net profit was up over 45% during the quarter, sharply higher than a mere 4% rise in the December quarter and over 23?ll in the March quarter last year. Sales growth remained poor at 5%, but it was still higher than expectations of a 1% rise.

 

Automobile companies had a poor quarter, but this was largely on account of a poor performance by Tata Motors--India's largest automobile company in terms of revenue and net profit. Tata Motors' revenue was slightly below expectations while net profit plunged 48% on a high base of last year, when the company had received a deferred tax credit of over INR 95 billion.

 

Excluding Tata Motors, the remaining nine automobile companies reported an adjusted net profit growth of nearly 12%, beating expectations of a 9% rise. Sales growth for 10 automobile companies was 6%, in line with expectations.

 

UNDERPERFORMERS

Fast moving consumer goods companies continued to be a major pain point. It was the second straight quarter of fall in cumulative adjusted net profit for the 12 companies in the sector. However, the sector's cumulative sales growth was in line with expectations at 10%, better than a 2% growth in the March quarter last year and 9% in the December quarter.

 

A 13% drop in net profit of ITC Ltd. had a big impact on the sector, which struggled due to higher raw material prices. Excluding ITC, the adjusted net profit of the remaining 11 companies rose 3.6%, better than the analysts' estimates of a 2.5% rise for these companies. Net profit growth was poor as the cumulative cost of raw materials consumed by the 12 companies increased by nearly 18%, much faster than the 10% sales growth. Higher raw material costs during the quarter offset the positive impact of price hikes taken by companies.

 

Consumer durables continued with their strong performance, but a slight slowdown in growth was visible. The three companies in the sector reported weaker-than-expected adjusted net profit growth of 38%, largely on account of an earnings miss from Dixon Technologies, even as Havells India Ltd. and Voltas Ltd. topped expectations. The cumulative sales growth for the three companies was nearly 51%, largely in line with expectations of a 53% rise.

 

For the chemical sector, the 8% growth in adjusted net profit was single-handedly driven by UPL Ltd., which reported an eightfold increase in bottom line. Excluding UPL Ltd., the eight companies in the sector reported a decline of 24% in cumulative adjusted net profit. UPL had skewed earnings in the December quarter as well, when it reported a net profit compared with a loss earlier.

 

Excluding UPL, earnings for the remaining chemical companies have been poor for several quarters now. The eight companies in the sector saw their cumulative adjusted net profit decline for the fifth straight quarter in Jan-Mar.

 

MET EXPECTATIONS

Some of the largest information technology companies remained a drag on the overall earnings growth in the sector, while mid-caps reported relatively better growth. The trend has been going on for several quarters now.

 

The six large-cap IT companies in the Nifty 200 index have reported cumulative sales growth in only low to mid-single digit for seven quarters now. The cumulative sales growth of seven mid-cap IT companies during the same quarters has been higher between 11% and 23%.

 

In the March quarter, sales growth for 13 companies in the sector rose 6.5% on year, largely in-line with estimates. Within these, the seven mid-cap companies reported sales growth of 17% on year.

 

Pharmaceutical and healthcare sector's performance was in line with analysts' expectations. The 13 companies in the sector reported a 13% rise in sales growth and 14% rise in adjusted net profit.

 

The following table is a snapshot of the sector-wise performance of companies during the March quarter as compared with the same quarter last year and with the Informist Poll:

 

Sector	Number of Cos	Jan-Mar net sales	Jan-Mar PAT excluding exceptional items		No. of cos for which estimates were available	Jan-Mar sales as per Informist Poll	Jan-Mar PAT as per Informist Poll
		(% change YoY)	(% change YoY)			(% change YoY)	(% change YoY)
Telecommunications*	5	19.0	INR 67.06 billion		5	20.1	INR 11.13 billion
Consumer durables	3	51.0	38.3		3	52.6	41.8
Chemicals	9	11.1	8.3		8	10.4	17.4
Real estate	6	6.5	0.1		6	18.8	(-)5.6
Cement	4	11.2	(-)1.3		4	9.2	(-)4.3
Retail	5	17.0	89.3		5	19.0	56.9
Financial services, ex-banks	29	5.1	18.4		23	3.5	9.2
Services	6	31.6	15.7		6	34.2	14.7
Pharma and healthcare	13	13.2	13.6		13	12.7	13.5
Banks	20	3.6	4.1		17	5.0	(-)0.5
Information technology	13	6.5	2.6		12	7.4	1.3
Capital goods	18	8.6	1.4		16	12.2	(-)5.0
Auto-ancillary	7	7.9	(-)11.9		7	6.1	(-)13.9
Metal and mining	8	5.1	40.3		8	1.3	30.9
Infrastructure	5	21.8	41.4		5	18.5	22.1
Jewellery	2	24.6	14.5		2	17.9	11.3
Automobile	10	5.7	(-)23.9		10	6.4	(-)31.2
FMCG	12	9.8	(-)3.2		12	8.6	0.6
Energy	25	2.0	1.5		21	0.0	(-)13.5

 

*  Absolute number of profit has been given for telecom instead of a percentage change because the sector has reported a net profit from a net loss in the year-ago quarter.

Note: Analyst estimates for each index group are derived from estimates for companies that are part of the respective indices.

For more details on company-specific estimates, please read the story "[I] Nifty 200 Earnings Poll: Estimates of Jan-Mar PAT, sales". 

For more details on company-specific earnings, please read the story "[I] Highlights of India cos Jan-Mar earnings detailed so far". 

 

End

 

Data compiled by Vinod Bhovad

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.