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Groundnut Oil Weakens; Sugar Firm, Gold Slips

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The 71 companies which unveiled their results yesterday reported an aggregate 10.06 per cent fall in net sales to Rs 3,020.42 crore from Rs 3,358.09 crore. Their net profit, however, rose by 4.15 per cent to Rs 447.47 crore.

The aggregate for 876 companies, whose results are available so far, shows a 8.62 per cent rise in net sales to Rs 55,713.98 crore, while their net profit displays a rise of 4.95 per cent to Rs 3,719.64 crore.

A marginal decline in interest burden and a sharp drop in the tax provision has resulted in the net profit of the 71 companies going up by 4.15 per cent to Rs 447.47 crore from Rs 429.66 crore.

 

Interest burden of these companies declined by 6.29 per cent to 107.11 crore from 114.30 crore, while tax declined by a whopping 40.76 per cent to Rs 108.35 crore from Rs 182.90 crore.

As a result, net profit margins have improved by two percentage points to 14.81 per cent in spite of flat gross-profit margins.

Notwithstanding the pressure on sales, these companies have been able to maintain their operating profit margins at 25.54 per cent.

This shows the corporate world's thrust on controlling costs to improve profitability.

The major contributor on this front has been Gas Authority of India with a turnover of Rs 1,623.4 crore and a net profit of Rs 443.86 crore.

The aggregate financials of 876 company results show that despite a marginal decline in operating profit margins, the operating profit increased by 7.22 per cent to 10,009.69 crore.

But the increase in interest burden by 11.42 per cent to Rs 2,898.54 crore resulted in a marginal dip in gross profit margin to 12.76 per cent from 13.13 per cent.

Till date, 708 companies have announced their full year results ending March 31, 1999.

Net profit growth of these companies have shown a marginal increase of 1.63 per cent to Rs 11,010.63 crore on a sales growth of 9.25 per cent to Rs 149605.73 crore. The main reason for lower bottomline growth is the increase in interest burden and depreciation. Interest burden increased by 14.82 per cent to Rs 8,734.89 crore while depreciation increased 21.48 to Rs 7,150.76 crore.

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First Published: Oct 07 1999 | 12:00 AM IST

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