Sales of listed private companies rise 41% in Q1: RBI data

RBI

Sales of listed non-finance private companies increased by 41 per cent in the quarter ending June 2022 to Rs 14.11 lakh crore, according to Reserve Bank data released on Thursday.

The expansion in sales was 22.3 per cent in January-March 2021-22 quarter and 60.6 per cent in April-June 2021-22 quarter.

The Reserve Bank released data on the performance of the private corporate sector during the first quarter of 2022-23 drawn from abridged quarterly financial results of 2,749 listed non-government non-financial companies. "Driven by broad based demand expansion across industries, the manufacturing sector recorded impressive sales growth of 41.6 per cent (y-o-y) in Q1:2022-23, which was aided by both volume and price effects," it said.

As per the central bank's analysis, annual sales growth of information technology (IT) companies, which remained steady in positive terrain even during the COVID-19 pandemic, stood at 21.3 per cent during the April-June quarter of the current financial year. Further, sales of non-IT services companies swelled by 62.1 per cent (y-o-y) in the first quarter 2022-23, as the service activities continued their ascend on strong revival path after the second wave of the pandemic a year ago; hotels and restaurant, transport, trade and real estate sectors bounced back sharply.

"Manufacturers' expenses on raw materials increased by 52.0 per cent (y-o-y) in tandem with robust demand expansion; the ratio of raw material expenditure to sales moved up on both sequential as well as annual basis," the central bank said. Annual growth in staff cost for manufacturing, IT and non-IT services companies stood at 10.3 per cent, 23.5 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, whereas the ratio of their staff cost to sales stood at 5 per cent, 50.1 per cent and 8 per cent, respectively.

Operating profit of listed private non-financial companies expanded across the broad sectors in the latest quarter. Pricing power, as reflected in net profit margin, moderated for manufacturing and IT companies, whereas it remained in negative terrain for non-IT services companies, mainly due to the losses recorded by telecom and transport companies, the RBI added.