Profit before tax also declined by 4.57 per cent to Rs 8,756 crore in 1998-99. This has occurred probably due to the significant declinesin PBT by IndusInd Bank (-62.9 per cent), Easun Reyrolle (-92.9 per cent), Forbes Gokak (-76.3 per cent), Kanoria Chemicals (-80.5 per cent), Sutlej Industries (-60.8 per cent), IFCI (-94.8 per cent) BSES (-98.8 per cent) and Arvind Mills (-86.8 per cent).

Though the aggregate sales of 223 companies rose by 6.53 per cent to Rs 1,34,609 crore during 1998-99 from the level of Rs 1,26,360 crore during 1997-98, the PAT to sales ratio of these companies declined from 5.82 per cent to 4.98 per cent during 1998-99

Of the 223 companies, 79 companies showed a decline in gross profit. Notable among them are IFCI (-81.8 per cent), Bajaj Tempo (-75.3 per cent), Tata SSL (-77.9 per cent), IndusInd Bank (-52.6 per cent), Hotel Leelaventure (-46.7 per cent) and Ginni Filaments (-51.4 per cent).

Ten companies - National Radio, Oregon Commercials, Indian Resort Hotels, DCM Shriram Inds, Rural Electrification, Mahindra British Tele, Universal Print System, Sangvi Movers, Kanpur Plastipack and Santosh Fine-Fab - more thandoubled their gross profits. Among these companies, highest growth of 677.8 per cent was reported by Santosh Fine-Fab.

In PBT, 24 companies have recorded an increase of 100 per cent or more during 1998-99. Of these DCM Shriram Industries, showed a highest growth of 923.6 per cent during the year. However, 82 companies have recorded a lower PBT during 1998-99. In the case of PAT, significant loss made by the companies during 1998-99 are Mafatlal Finance (-Rs 33.72 crore), Raymond Synthetics (-Rs 29.77 crore), Nirlon (-Rs 25.74 crore), Bajaj Tempo (-Rs 28.21 crore), Ponni Sugars (-Rs 20.01 crore), DCL Polyester (-Rs 31.87 crore), Guj Sidhee Cement (-Rs 55.26 crore), Tri-Star Soya (-Rs 25.79 crore), Essar Steel (-Rs 496.45 crore), Mukand (-Rs 32.71 crore), Jindal Vijaynagar Steel (-Rs 28.14 crore) and Modern Syntex (-Rs 87.49 crore).

As many as 77 companies recorded lower net profit. Notable among them are Easun Reyolle (-90.3 per cent), Arvind Mills (-85.7 per cent), Kanoria Chemicals (-80.3 per cent),Simplex Concrete Piles (-69.5 per cent), Marathawada Refrac (-69.4 per cent), Binani Metals (-64.2 per cent) and Yokogawa Blue Star (-64.7 per cent).

On the other hand, 26 companies have reported an increase of 100 per cent or more. Mention may be made of Cochin Minerals, Oregon Commercials, Rubber Products, Century Enka, DCM Shriram Industries, Victor Imper and SRF.Among the 223 companies, the top 5 in respect of PAT to sales ratio during 1998-99 were BSEL Information (77.42 per cent), Cyber Tech Systems (63.31 per cent), Himatsingka Seide (34.14 per cent), Mahindra British Tele (31.54 per cent) and Indian Resort Hotels (31.49 per cent).

PAT formed less than 1 per cent of sales during 1998-99 in the case of 20 companies. Mention may be made of Shri Ganesh Spinners (0.16 per cent), Reliance Chemotex (0.05 per cent), Filatex India (0.04 per cent), Bharat Bijlee (0.15 per cent), RM Mohite Textiles (0.02 per cent), Viraj Alloys 0.13 per cent) and Mahaan Foods (0.25 per cent).

A significant increase in theratio during 1998-99 from the level of 1997-98 was recorded by Cochin Minerals (3.41 per cent in 1997-98 to 7.71 per cent in 1998-99), Indian Resort Hotels (14.42 per cent to 31.49 per cent), Rural Electrification (12.09 per cent to 27.83 per cent), Kemwell International (6.41 per cent to 11.16 per cent), Silktex (7.55 per cent to 12.33 per cent), Menon Bearing (5.91 per cent to 12.02 per cent) and DSP Merrill (16.30 per cent to 23.22 per cent). A reverse trend can be seen in the case Easun Reyrolle (15.48 per cent in 1997-98 to 1.63 per cent in 1998-99), Kanoria Chemicals (6.36 per cent to 1.15 per cent), Sutlej Industries (8.05 per cent to 2.85 per cent), Himatsingka Seide (41.40 per cent to 34 14 per cent), Tourism Fin Corpn (21.09 per cent to 9.81 per cent), IFCI (14.33 per cent to 0.84 per cent), Essar Shipping (20.66 per cent to 11.20 per cent), Hotel Leelaventure (37.26 per cent to 11.09 per cent) and Indicarb (11.07 per cent to 3.25 per cent.

Aggregates

This week's additions of 223companies with previous 556 companies results also showed an increase in sales. The total of 779 companies sales increased by 13.71 per cent to Rs 4,05,686 crore during 1998-99 from the level of Rs 3,56,788 crore during 1997-98. The other income of these companies increased by 3.79 per cent to Rs 11,172 crore during 1998-99 from the level of Rs 10,764 crore during 1997-98. These companies have posted a rise of 11.63 per cent to Rs 94,488 crore in operating profit during 1998-99 from the level of Rs 84,641 crore during 1997-98. The gross profit of these companies also increased by 5.29 per cent to Rs 53,745 crore during 1998-99. The PBT and PAT increased by 3.09 per cent to Rs 36,476 crore and 1.38 per cent to Rs 28,202 crore respectively during the year 1998-99. On the other hand, the ratio of PAT to sales decreased from 7.80 per cent in 1997-98 to 6.95 per cent in 1998-99.

Quarterly Performance

There are 55 companies whose fourth quarter results are available during this week. Among resultscollected, significant growth in sales was witnessed in the case of Himachal Futuristic (121.2 per cent), Orient Information Techno (191.1 per cent), Siltap Chemicals (135.5 per cent) and Kanohar Electricals (71.0 per cent) during the January-March '99 quarter from the January-March '98 quarter. A reverse trend can be seen in the case of Asian Paints (-60.4 per cent), Suditi Industries (-54.4 per cent) and Vatsa Corporation (-36.2 per cent). On the profit front, significant growth in PAT was observed in the case of Bharat Bijlee (119 per cent), Godavari Fertiliser (97.3 per cent), Orient Information Techno (320 per cent), RM Mohite Textiles (912.5 per cent) and VXL Instruments (275 per cent). The net profit of RM Mohite Textiles was Rs 3.24 crore (Rs 0.32 crore) for the quarter ended March 99. Significant drop in PAT was witnessed in the case of Kanohar Electricals (-73.7 per cent), Cochin Minerals (-76.6 per cent), Sutlej Industries (-74.8 per cent) and Ellora Paper Mills (-83.3 per cent). More than 20 percent ratio (PAT to sales) was witnessed during the fourth quarter in the case of UTI Bank (20.62 per cent), BSEL Information Systems (69.50 per cent), Bajaj Electricals (20.54 per cent) GG Dandekar Machine works (41.10 per cent) and Cyber Tech Systems (61.53 per cent).

A significant increase in the ratio during the last quarter of 1998-99 from the corresponding quarter of 1997-98 was observed in the case of VXL Instruments, Orient Information Technology, Bajaj Electricals and Asian Paints. An opposite trend can be seen in the case of Larsen & Toubro, Cochin Minerals, Sutlej Industries, RM Mohite Textiles, Suashish Diamonds, Electronica Machine Tools, Sai-Moh Autolinks, Ellora Paper Mills and Suditi Industries which showed less than 1 per cent ratio of PAT to sales during January-March 99 quarter.