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Informist, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025

 

By Gopika Balasubramanium

 

MUMBAI – The aggregate top line growth of Nifty 500 companies grew in single digits yet again in the September quarter, mainly due to the superior performance of the bottom 300 companies of the group, excluding the Nifty 200 companies. The bottom 300 companies reported a 31% growth in adjusted net profit for the September quarter on the back of a 10% growth in revenue and this pulled up the Nifty 500 adjusted profit growth to 14% and sales growth to over 8%. This is far better than the 11?justed profit growth and the near 8% revenue growth posted by the Nifty 200, which are the top 200 companies of the Nifty 500. 

 

The silver lining was that the profit growth for 500 companies was at a six-quarter high and the mid-teens growth in profit was recorded for the second quarter in a row. The adjusted profit growth of the Nifty 500 companies was also better than the 0.4% on-year decline in the cumulative net profit of the Nifty 50 companies, but their revenue growth was slightly below the 8.7% on-year growth reported by Nifty 50 companies.   

 

The revenue of these 500 companies rose over 8% on year to INR 33.95 trillion in the September quarter. Sequentially, it rose nearly 2.5%, which was better than the fall reported in the June quarter. While the net profit adjusted for one-time costs and incomes of these 500 companies grew nearly 14% on year, it was largely flat on quarter at INR 3.85 trillion. 

 

For the September quarter, the Nifty 500 companies incurred an expenditure of INR 31.19 billion, up over 5%. The on-year rise in total expenses of these companies moderated slightly from the June quarter. 

 

However, if the earnings of the undivided Tata Motors are to be excluded, the report card of the Nifty 500 companies for Jul-Sept paints an entirely different picture. Without the undivided Tata Motors, the revenue of these companies grew nearly 9% and the aggregate net profit grew 16% on year. This is much better than the 8% sales growth and the 14% net profit growth on including the undivided Tata Motors. 

 

In absolute terms, the adjusted net loss of the undivided Tata Motors was INR 27 billion from continuing operations in the September quarter. In the year-ago quarter, the undivided Tata Motors had reported a net profit of nearly INR 35 billion. Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles reported a loss as volumes of the Jaguar Land Rover plummeted on the back of a production shutdown in September after a cyberattack at its facility in the UK. 

 

Analysts' earnings estimates were available only for 410 of these 500 companies. The cumulative revenue of these 410 companies, for which earnings estimates were available, rose nearly 9% on year to INR 31.11 trillion in Jul-Sept. This was largely in line with expectations of an 8% rise. The adjusted net profit of these 410 companies rose 13% on year to INR 3.51 trillion. This cumulative net profit growth fell short of expectations of a near 11% rise.   

 

The earnings growth of the bottom 300 companies of the Nifty 500 painted a different picture. The revenue of these 300 companies rose nearly 10% on year to INR 5.64 trillion in the September quarter. The adjusted net profit of the bottom 300 companies grew 31% on year to around INR 532 billion. The growth of these 300 companies was better than that of the Nifty 500 companies as well as the Nifty 200 companies on both the metrics. This stellar growth was despite an 8.5% on-year rise in input costs. 

 

PROFIT OUTPERFORMERS

Among the Nifty 500 companies, the sectors that witnessed the strongest growth in adjusted net profit for the September quarter were basic industries, energy, and pharmaceutical and chemical companies.

 

The net profit growth of the 110 basic industry companies in the Nifty 500 was the highest among sectors. These 110 companies, which include defence, metal and mining, capital goods, cement, and real estate, posted an adjusted net profit growth of 39%, a seven-quarter-high, which is nearly three times the cumulative net profit growth of 13% reported by the Nifty 500. There was strong growth across sub-sectors, especially for metal and mining companies. The aggregated net sales of these 110 companies grew 13%, the highest in 12 quarters. 

 

The pharmaceutical and chemical companies posted the second-best performance, with these 82 companies cumulatively growing their adjusted net profit by 26% in the September quarter, their best in 12 quarters. This strong performance was due to stable US generic pricing, better domestic demand for key therapies, and a fall in input costs. The total revenue of these companies rose 13%, which was better than the 8% growth reported by the top 500 companies. The net sales growth of these companies was also the highest in 11 quarters. 

 

The 38 energy companies of the Nifty 500 universe reported a 21% growth in net profit adjusted for one-time items, a seven-quarter high. This was mainly due to strong growth reported by three oil marketing companies--Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd., Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Ltd. The exponential net profit growth of these companies was due to a $5-$9-per-barrel improvement in their gross refining margins as oil prices fell, while the prices of refined petroleum products, especially diesel and aviation turbine fuel rose. The aggregate revenue of these 38 energy companies grew around 4%, the highest in five quarters.

 

Without the three oil marketers, the net sales of the remaining 35 energy companies rose 5% on year and their net profit fell a little over 4% on year in Jul-Sept. The adjusted net profit of the three oil marketing companies accounted for 23% of the sector's profit. 

 

THE UNDERPERFORMERS

 

Companies in the transport and services sector were the only ones to report a fall in adjusted net profit in the September quarter. The 40 services sector companies, which include retailers, reported a 33% on-year fall in their adjusted net profit. The contraction was the sharpest in five quarters. This was mainly due to a cumulative net loss of INR 19 billion reported by Swiggy Ltd., Info Edge (India) Ltd., and RattanIndia Enterprises Ltd. Excluding these three companies, the net profit of the remaining 37 companies rose 4% on year. Though the growth was modest, it was better than the decline in net profit that these companies reported. In contrast, the net sales growth of these 40 services companies was the highest among sectors and came in at a five-quarter high. The revenue of these 40 companies grew nearly 25% on year, better than the growth of the Nifty 500 companies. The net sales growth was driven by e-commerce and food delivery giant Eternal, whose revenue saw a three-fold jump on the back of restructuring of its quick commerce operations housed under Blinkit. Without Eternal, the sales growth of the services sector slowed down to 16%.

 

Another laggard was the transport sector, which includes automobile, auto-ancillary, shipping, ports, and aviation companies. The adjusted net profit of the 43 transport sector companies in the Nifty 500 fell 16.5% on year. The underperformance was due to the undivided Tata Motors, which reported a net loss of nearly INR 27 billion and InterGlobe Aviation, which posted a net loss of INR 26 billion. Without Tata Motors and InterGlobe Aviation, the remaining 41 transport companies clocked an over 16% growth in net profit excluding one-time costs or gains. This is better than the near 14% growth of the Nifty 500 companies and the just over 11% growth of the Nifty 200 companies. 

 

The net sales growth of the 43 transport companies was also underwhelming and grew only 6%. This was lower than an over 8% growth in net sales reported by the Nifty 500 companies.
 

The following table gives a snapshot of sector-wise performance of the Nifty 500 companies for the September quarter:

 

Sector	Number of companies	Jul-Sept PAT excluding exceptional items (% change)		Jul-Sept net sales (% change)		Total expense growth in %
		YoY	QoQ	YoY	QoQ	YoY	QoQ
Nifty 500	500	13.59	0.31	8.12	2.48	5.37	1.35
Nifty 200	200	11.18	(-)0.76	7.77	1.78	4.84	0.49
IT, media, telecom	45	18.35	10.38	7.63	4.25	4.77	2.65
Basic industries	110	38.55	12.99	12.89	6.14	10.75	5.96
Financial services	94	7.30	(-)1.28	6.72	4.78	(-)1.30	(-)1.68
Energy	38	21.02	0.56	3.82	(-)2.61	1.67	(-)2.38
Consumer	48	7.81	(-)1.38	11.84	1.01	12.89	1.44
Transport	43	(-)16.49	(-)30.00	6.36	0.18	9.13	3.03
Services	40	(-)33.32	(-)53.43	24.65	10.72	25.84	12.22
Pharma & chemicals	82	25.94	18.06	13.08	9.07	11.51	7.95

 

End

 

Data compiled by Vinod Bhovad

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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