Journalism of Courage
Operating profit growth of listed private companies decelerated across broad sectors in the January-March quarter of 2021-22, on the back of a rise in expenditure, according to RBI data.
Operating profit of manufacturing companies decelerated sharply to 7% in the fourth quarter of last fiscal as against 70% in the corresponding quarter of the preceding fiscal.
In the case of companies in the services sector (non-IT), the growth in operating profit slowed to 6.1% in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 compared to 62.5% in the year-ago period.
The operating profit in the case of IT firm slowed to 5.9% from 19.7%.
RBI data further said sales of 2,758 listed private non-financial companies recorded a healthy growth of 22.3% (year-on-year) in the fourth quarter of 2021-22, compared to 22.8% in the comparable quarter of the previous year.
“Aggregate sales of 1,709 listed private manufacturing companies registered a steady growth (y-o-y) of 24.6% in Q4, 2021-22, driven by high sales growth in petroleum, non-ferrous metals, iron and steel, chemicals and textiles industries,” the RBI said.
Information Technology (IT) companies continued their move on a growth trajectory with a 20.7% growth in sales during the fourth quarter of 2021-22.
Sales of non-IT services companies expanded by 20.9% (y-o-y) in the January-March period 2021-22, led by steady growth in transport, trade, telecom, hotel, and restaurant sectors.
Despite rising expenditures, manufacturing companies maintained their operating and net profit margins in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 as compared to the previous quarter.
Net profit margin remained stable for IT companies, while for non-IT services companies it remained in negative terrain due to losses recorded by telecom and transport companies, the RBI said.
