228 companies on BSE 500 show profit growth

NEW DELHI: Despite the gloomy sentiments, almost half of the BSE 500 companies actually raked in more moolah in the form of profits they did in the previous year. These include sectoral bigwigs like Nestle India, Tech Mahindra, Cairn India, Reliance Power and Oriental Bank of Commerce among others.

According to a SundayET analysis of the 481 companies whose quarterly results have been available for the FY09, about 228 companies actually reported a high growth in profits. As audited financial results of all companies were not available, interim annual results available at the CMIE Database have been considered for the analysis. The interim annual result is the sum of the results of all four quarters.

Of the 228 companies, about 18 actually witnessed a growth of over 100%. For instance, one of the leading players in the FMCG space, Nestle India, which reported a profit of Rs 160 crore in the FY08, saw its profits soaring by 233% to Rs 538 crore in FY09.

Similarly, IT-player Tech Mahindra, which recently took over corporate fraud, hit Satyam Computers; also saw profits growing by 188% to Rs 986 crore in FY09. According to Dhiraj Sachdev, VP & head of equities at HSBC Asset Management Company, growth in profits was possible as the effect of the slowdown was not felt across all quarter results. In fact, the first quarter performance of India Inc particularly remained almost unaffected by the slowdown.

The major effect of slowdown was during the quarter ending December 2008, when the performance of companies was hit by forex losses, high interest and inventory cost. However, things are improving, as there is a revival in demand. [From Internet]