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Informist, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026

 

By Arundathi A R

 

MUMBAI – Nifty 500 companies reported a robust start to 2026-27 (Apr-Mar), as their cumulative year-on-year revenue growth for the June quarter was the highest in 15 quarters. However, their adjusted net profit growth, which excludes exceptional items, was the slowest in seven quarters as higher expenses hit profitability.

 

The adjusted net profit of the 500 companies rose over 10% on year and revenue almost 20% on year in the June quarter. Total expenses of these companies rose nearly 21% on year, the most in 14 quarters, and led to slower growth in net profit.

 

Of the 500 companies, earnings estimates were available for 440 companies and these companies' cumulative net profit rose 14% on year in the June quarter, against expectations of a fall of over 2%. These companies' sales growth was also above expectations, with net sales rising 20% on year, against expectations of nearly 18% rise.

 

"Low base, INR depreciation, high commodity prices and FY26's consumption stimulus (GST cuts, RBI's regulatory easing) have propelled revenue growth higher," Nuvama Institutional Equities said in an earnings review report.

 

Among these 440 companies, the adjusted net profit of 261 companies surpassed estimates, while the remaining 179 companies missed expectations. In terms of net sales, 283 of the 440 companies reported better-than-expected figures for the June quarter, and the remaining 157 missed the Street's view.

 

For the bottom 300 companies in the Nifty 500 pack, aggregate net sales rose 15% on year, while their adjusted net profit was unchanged from the corresponding year-ago quarter. However, on a sequential basis, both net sales and adjusted net profit of these companies fell in Apr-Jun. While aggregate net sales fell nearly 2%, their adjusted net profit posted a fall of nearly 24%.

 

Nifty 200 companies fared slightly better in both their cumulative revenue growth and adjusted net profit growth for the June quarter compared to the overall Nifty 500 pack. The cumulative net sales of Nifty 200 companies grew over 21% on year, while the adjusted net profit rose nearly 12%. 

 

SECTORAL WINNERS

Of the eight major sectors part of the Nifty 500, six beat the Street's expectations on adjusted net profit for the quarter. Among them, basic industries, services, and information technology, media, and telecom reported a sharp on-year rise in their adjusted net profit. The pharmaceutical and chemical sector posted growth in net profit against a fall expected for the quarter. Though energy companies' cumulative adjusted bottom line reported a fall on year, the fall was much lower than the decline expected by analysts.

 

Seven of the eight sectors outperformed the Street's expectations on net sales. Barring financial services, all sectors beat expectations for the June quarter.

 

Basic industries, pharmaceutical and chemicals, services, and information technology, media, and telecom were the four sectors that beat the aggregate adjusted net profit growth of the Nifty 500 group, while consumer, energy, financial services, and transport sectors' growth was below the overall group's net profit growth. Barring energy and services, the cumulative net sales growth of all sectors was below the sales growth of Nifty 500 companies.

 

"The 1QFY27(Apr-Jun) corporate earnings season concluded on a strong note, demonstrating widespread outperformance across all key aggregates," Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in a note earlier this month. The brokerage said sectors such as financials, metals, oil and gas (excluding oil marketing companies), automobiles, chemicals, textiles, and real estate led the earnings growth in the June quarter. It also said that the oil and gas sector and private sector banks were a drag on overall aggregates.

 

Among the eight sectors, services reported the highest year-on-year growth in adjusted net profit for the quarter. The sector, which includes hospitality, retail, tourism, and travel, posted nearly 51% growth on year in adjusted net profit for the quarter under review. Together, the 41 companies in this sector reported the second-highest top line growth among all sectors at nearly 25% year-on-year growth.

 

The basic industries sector, which includes mining, metals, cement, construction, and real estate companies, logged the second-highest adjusted net profit growth among all sectors in the June quarter at around 46% on year. The aggregate net sales of 109 companies in this sector grew nearly 19% on year. 

 

The adjusted net profit growth of 42 information technology, media, and telecom companies was the highest in six quarters at nearly 27% on year. Their cumulative top line growth of nearly 16% was the highest in 13 quarters.

 

In the pharmaceutical and chemicals sector, 78 companies together posted adjusted net profit growth of over 12% on year for the quarter. The net sales of these companies grew almost 13% on year in the June quarter.

 

SECTORAL DRAGS

In terms of revenue, the energy sector logged the highest growth among all sectors in the June quarter. However, with higher expense growth than net sales recorded in the June quarter, the adjusted net profit of the sector fell on year after five quarters. The net profit of 37 companies in this sector fell over 16% on year with sales growth of nearly 29%. However, the fall in net profit was lower than expected by the Street. Total expenses for companies in the sector grew nearly 33%, led by a 60% rise in the cost of raw materials consumed.

 

Consumer and financial services were the only sectors that missed the Street's expectations on adjusted net profit growth and it was also below the Nifty 500 companies' bottom line growth. Financial services was the only sector that missed its net sales growth estimate.

 

Together, consumer companies reported only 4% on-year adjusted net profit growth in the June quarter with revenue rising nearly 15%. Financial services companies' aggregate net profit grew over 9% on year, while the top line rose nearly 12% on year. Companies in the transport sector together reported the lowest adjusted net profit growth among all sectors at over 2%.

 

The following table gives the snapshot of the sector-wise performance of companies for Apr-Jun in descending order of year-on-year growth in net profit excluding exceptional items:

 

Sector	Number of companies	Apr-Jun PAT excluding exceptional items (% change)		Apr-Jun net sales (% change)		Total expense growth in %
		YoY	QoQ	YoY	QoQ	YoY	QoQ
Nifty 500	500	9.75	(-)10.97	19.80	2.58	20.52	6.30
Nifty 200	200	11.73	(-)8.74	21.12	3.81	21.99	7.40
Services	41	50.67	3.35	24.74	6.73	33.48	6.75
Basic industries	109	45.89	(-)8.66	18.63	(-)9.75	15.35	(-)10.01
IT, media, telecom	42	26.55	(-)3.23	15.69	3.75	13.44	3.72
Pharma & chemicals	78	12.26	9.93	12.96	5.40	17.97	4.33
Financial services	101	9.22	(-)7.94	11.65	(-)5.24	9.62	8.67
Consumer	44	3.96	(-)6.88	14.51	0.77	15.85	1.70
Transport	48	2.07	(-)14.76	19.66	(-)2.20	21.21	(-)0.77
Energy	37	(-)16.31	(-)28.93	28.93	16.90	32.56	19.51

 

End

 

Data compiled by Vinod Bhovad

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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