GST, low industrial growth drag down Q2 net by 1.5 pc: report

Mumbai: Lower industrial growth and adjustment to the GST regime have pulled down corporate profits by about 1.5 per cent to Rs 1.03 trillion during the second quarter, against a healthy 13.2 per cent rise in the year ago period, says a report.

"Net profit declined by 1.5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,03,438 crore in the September quarter from Rs 1,05,021 crore in same period year-ago when the bottomline had grown by 13.2 per cent over the previous year," said a Care Ratings report citing results of  1,241 companies.

The overall performance has been driven by large companies that accounted for 71 per cent of total net sales.

"They recorded negative growth in net profit of 7.4 per cent in the second quarter as against a growth of about 10.9 per cent a year ago," it said.

At the same time, the study found that net sales growth slowed down to 7 per cent after registering a growth of 10 per cent in the same period year-ago.

The agency noted that while overall performance is skewed due to banks, oil companies, IT and finance which were guided by other exogenous factors, after excluding these sectors, earnings still depict a downward trend as that of the aggregate sample in the reporting period.

Net profit excluding banks, IT, oil and refineries, and finance dropped 4.4 per cent to Rs 45,945 crore in second quarter and the report attributed this to the disruptions arising from the GST rollout in beginning of the quarter.

Profits of companies with sales higher than Rs 500 crore and the ones below Rs 100 crore posted year-on-year decline during the quarter.