Earnings of Sensex firms to drop by 2% in June quarter: Report

Telecom, energy, auto, banking sectors to lead decline; on q-o-q basis, fall to be even greater at 6%

Earnings of Sensex companies are expected to drop 2 per cent led by telecom, energy, automobile and banking sectors, during the first quarter of 2016-17 over the same period a year-ago, says a report.

According to Kotak Institutional Equities, net profit of companies under BSE-30 index for April-June quarter would decline by 2 per cent year-on-year, while it would plunge by 6 per cent on quarter-on-quarter basis.

However, excluding energy sector, the net profits of Sensex companies would rise marginally by 0.9 per cent for the first quarter ended June 2016, compared to the year-ago period.

The same would decline by 6.8 per cent on quarter-on-quarter basis.

"For the BSE-30 Index, we expect net profits to decline 2 per cent year-on-year and 6 per cent quarter-on-quarter," the report said.

Earnings for telecom companies in the BSE-30 index are likely to decline 28.2 per cent followed by 13 per cent dip in energy sector, on year-on-year basis, data compiled by Kotak Institutional Equities showed.

Besides, profits would fall for automobiles (11.2 per cent) and banking (10.4 per cent).

Profits of utilities sector is expected to grow 26.8 per cent, followed by 23.6 per cent growth for pharmaceuticals.

Infrastructure (14.4 per cent), Industrials (15.7 per cent) and consumer product sector (12.8 per cent) would also see rise in earnings, for period under review.

The report noted that sales for the BSE-30 companies are expected to grow 4 per cent for the first quarter compared to the same period a year-ago, led by infrastructure, technology and pharmaceutical sectors.