India Inc sees revenue growth moderation for 4th straight quarter to 6-8%

India Inc is set to report a 6-8 per cent slowdown in revenue growth in the April-June period, making it the fourth straight quarter of a dip in the key number, an arm of rating agency Crisil said on Tuesday.

However, from a profitability perspective, corporate India is set to report an increase in margins to 20 per cent as against 19.6 per cent in the year-ago period, due to softness in the commodity prices, Crisil Market Intelligence and Analytics said in a note.

Moderation in the revenue growth will be on the back of low realizations and a high base, it said.

The revenue growth will be 2 percentage points lower than the one observed in the preceding January-March quarter, it said, adding that this will be the first time in eight quarters that the listed companies will show a sequential decline in revenue growth.

After an analysis of 300 companies from 47 sectors, excluding financial services and oil and gas, the report said 14 sectors are likely to witness a fall in revenue while 15 may have logged slower sequential growth.

It said lower realisations and slowing global demand for metals and industrial commodities affected makers of aluminium, steel, ferro alloys and petrochemicals.

Revenue of aluminium manufacturers likely fell 14-16 per cent owing to an 18-20 per cent decline in international prices and a sedate growth in volumes, it said, adding, steel products may have logged a 6-8 per cent contraction in revenue on the high base of the previous fiscal and a drop in realisations, which offset volume growth.

The power sector is likely to see a relatively slower 5 per cent revenue growth, it added.

"Of the total on-year incremental revenue during the first quarter, nearly 60 per cent would have been contributed by just three segments -- investment-linked, export-linked, and consumer discretionary products and services," its director Aniket Dani said, adding majority of this rise is driven by auto and cement sectors.

Export-linked sectors are seen bucking the decline largely on the back of healthy growth in IT services and pharmaceuticals, Dani added.

Its associate director Sehul Bhatt said a 33 per cent decline in crude oil in the first quarter will help the profit margins.