MUMBAI: Sales growth of listed private non-financial companies improved to 8 percent during the second quarter from 5.4 percent a year ago and from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter, led by improvement in sales growth across all the major sectors, the Reserve Bank said Monday.
The report is based on the quarterly financial results of 3,118 listed non-government non-financial companies, the central bank said.
The sales of 1,775 listed private manufacturing companies rose by 8.5 percent from 5.3 percent in the previous quarter, mainly driven by higher sales growth in automobiles, food products, electrical machinery and chemicals industries.
On the other hand, from the services space, IT companies recorded a 7.8 percent growth in their sales during Q2 from 6 percent in the previous quarter. Sales of non-IT services companies recorded a double-digit growth of 10.6 percent compared to 7.5 percent in the previous quarter, primarily due to higher sales growth recorded by the wholesale and retail trade companies.
Manufacturing companies’ expenses on raw material rose by 9 percent which is in consonance with their sales growth; raw material to sales ratio increased to 55.9 percent from 54.1 percent in the previous quarter.
Of the total expenses, staffing cost of manufacturing, IT and non-IT services companies rose by 9.2 percent, 6 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, higher than the growth recorded during the previous quarter. Staff cost to sales ratio for manufacturing and non-IT services companies broadly remained stable at 5.8 percent and 10.7 percent, respectively, while for IT companies, the ratio moderated to 47.3 percent from 48.8 percent in the previous quarter.
Operating profit growth of manufacturing and IT companies improved to 10.6 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively, while it moderated to 6.5 percent for non-IT services companies from the previous quarter.
Operating profit margin improved sequentially for IT companies during Q2 of FY26, while it moderated for the manufacturing and non-IT services sectors.