Best in five quarters

INDIA INC PERFORMANCE IN Q1

Mid-cap firms outperformed Sensex, BSE-500.

The net profit of 247 mid-cap companies of the 290 stocks featuring in the BSE Mid-Cap index rose by 31 per cent, the best in the last five quarters.

Thus, mid-cap companies outperformed their peers including Sensex, BSE-500 and Small-cap firms on net profit growth during the quarter ended June 2006.

The non-banking companies of the index "" those belong to the manufacturing and services sectors "" reported a revenue growth of 20 per cent. The operating profit margin (OPM) of the non-banking companies expanded by 100 basis points. The OPM growth was higher mainly on account of the cement companies such as Shree Cement and India Cements.

Two hundred and forty-seven companies of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) mid-cap index have posted the highest-ever net profit growth of 31 per cent in last five quarters, compared with 28 per cent growth reported by small-cap companies. The Sensex companies had posted 24 per cent growth and 17.5 per cent growth by the BSE-500 companies during the quarter.

These 247 firms had posted combined net profit of Rs 5,461 crore in June 2006 quarter against Rs 4,157 crore in previous year quarter. The aggregate sales of these companies increased by 29 per cent to Rs 77,592 crore (Rs 60,194 crore).

Of the 247 firms, 239 companies had reported net profit, while remaining six companies posted net loss during the quarter. Four firms in this group "" iGate Global Solutions, Goetze, Force Motors and Micro Inks "" plunged into the red during the quarter.

Dena Bank, Himachal Futuristic, United Breweries Holdings, Moser Baer, Noida-Toll Bridge, Max India and RCF crawled back to the black during the quarter.

The net profit of 48 companies more than doubled, while 78 firms had posted net profit growth in the range of 30 per cent to 100 per cent. The net profit of Anant Raj Industries, India Cements,

Vertex Spinning, Aurobindo Pharma and Hinduja TMT rose more than ten-fold during the quarter.