Similarly in the case of Wipro, the net profit figure rose by 214.6 per cent to Rs 84 crore during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 26.70 crore during Oct-Dec '98. The total turnover of Wipro increased by 36.3 per cent to Rs 576.80 crore during Oct-Dec '99. On the other hand, the net sales of these 174 companies increased by 20.4 per cent to Rs 21,886 crore during Oct-Dec '99. This has occurred probably due to the significant increases in net sales by the companies like Ciba Specialty Chem, Consolidated Coffee, HDFC Bank, Pentasoft Technologies, Sona Koyo Steering Systems, United Motors and Vishwas Steels.

The operating profit of the above number of companies rose by 25.1 per cent to Rs 6,514 crore during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 5,208 crore during Oct-Dec '98. Gross profit of the 174 companies also rose by 31.9 per cent to Rs 4,084 crore in Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 3,096 crore in Oct-Dec '98. Profit before tax of the companies increased by 39.3 per cent to Rs 2,910 crore in Oct-Dec '99. Though the net profit of 174 companies rose by 36.2 per cent to Rs 2,537 crore during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 1,862 crore during Oct-Dec '98, the PAT to sales ratio of these companies increased from 10.25 per cent to 11.59 per cent during Oct-Dec '99.

Of the 174 companies, 37 companies registered a decline in gross profit. Significant among them are ACC (-81.6 per cent), Andrew Yule &Co (-77.0 per cent), IDL Industries (-54.7 per cent), Monsanto Chemicals (-74.5 per cent), Tata Infotech (-58.6 per cent) and VXL Instruments (-65.0 per cent). About 26 companies more than doubled their gross profit during the third quarter. Significant among them are Kalyani Brakes, Pasupati Spinning, Pentasoft Technologies, Soffia Software, Tata Chemicals and Wipro. In PBT, thirty-five companies have witnessed an increase of 100 per cent or more during the quarter Oct-Dec'99. Mention may be made of Atco Industries, Ciba Speciality Chem, Eicher Motors, Laffans Petrochemicals, Max India, Onward Technologies, Shriram Pistons & Rings, Tata Steel and Wipro.

However, 34 companies have recorded a lower PBT during Oct-Dec '99. In the case of PAT, significant loss made by the companies during Oct-Dec '99 are ACC (-Rs 19.79 crore), Birla Corporation (-Rs 17.59 crore), Orient Paper (-Rs 20.85 crore), Rain Calcining (-Rs 16.15 crore), and Raymond Synthetics (-Rs 19.94 crore).

As many as 37 companies recorded lower net profit during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Oct-Dec '98. On the other hand, thirty-four companies have witnessed an increase of 100 per cent or more mention may be made of CMC, Hindustan Construction, ICICI Bank, Sri Adhikari Brothers, Tata Chemicals, Tata Steel, Vishwas Steels and Wipro.

Among the 174 companies, the top five in respect of PAT to sales ratio during Oct-Dec '99 were Anuradha Investment (100 per cent), Rohini Traders (97.56 per cent), Magnum Traders (90.91 per cent), L&J Financial (76.19 per cent) and Samrat Industries (75 per cent). PAT formed less than 1 per cent of sales during Oct-Dec '99 in the case of Alstom (0.36 per cent), Atco Healthcare (0.94 per cent), Bharat Explosives (0.75 per cent), Gabriel India (0.24 per cent), Kpit Systems (0.46 per cent), Liberty Oil Mills (0.78 per cent), Shriram Pistons & Rings (0.41 per cent), Soveregn Diamonds (0.39 per cent) and VXL Instruments (0.26 per cent).

A significant increase in the ratio during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Oct-Dec '98 was recorded by Atco Industries (3.41 per cent in Oct-Dec'98 to 13.01 per cent in Oct-Dec '99), Binani Industries (0.85 per cent to 10.17 per cent), Computech International (7.73 per cent to 27.20 per cent), HCL Techno (31.19 per cent to 45.98 per cent), Hughes Software (33.93 per cent to 47.25 per cent), Laffans Petrochemicals (3.03 per cent to 12.83 per cent), Logix Microsystems (5 per cent to 37 per cent), Max India (10.04 per cent to 29.94 per cent), Onward Tecnologies (3.13 per cent to 13.57 per cent), Sri Adhikari Brothers (22.90 per cent to 42.51 per cent), Tata Chemicals (8.85 per cent to 30.57 per cent) and Triumph Intl Finance (1.39 per cent to 16.83 per cent).

An opposite trend can be seen in the case of Ador Technopak (20.98 per cent in Oct-Dec '98 to 9.35 per cent in Oct-Dec '99), Bharat Hotels (42.50 per cent to 30.89 per cent), Essar Shipping (10.48 per cent to 4.07 per cent), Janki Securities (22.22 per cent to 7.69 per cent), Kpit Systems (14.08 per cent to 0.46 per cent), Oriental Hotels (32.04 per cent to 18.91 per cent) and Tata Infotech (12.94 per cent to 1.60 per cent).

Aggregate

This week's addition of 174 companies with previous week's 90 companies third quarterly results also showed an increase in sales and profits. The total of 264 companies sales rose by 19.8 per cent to Rs 32,870 crore during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 27,440 crore during Oct-Dec '98. These companies have registered a rise of 48.1 per cent to Rs 1,151 crore (Rs 777 crore) in other income during Oct-Dec '99. In terms of operating profit these companies have shown a rise of 24.4 per cent to Rs 10,068 crore during Oct-Dec '99 from the level of Rs 8,096 crore during Oct-Dec '98. The gross profit figure of 264 companies also increased by 29.9 per cent to Rs 6,347 crore (Rs 4,885 crore) during Oct-Dec '99.

The PBT and PAT figures of these above number of companies increased by 36.7 per cent to Rs 4,357 crore (Rs 3,188 crore) and 33.4 per cent to Rs 3,848 crore (Rs 2,884 crore) respectively during Oct-Dec '99. The ratio of PAT to sales ratio increased from 10.51 per cent in Oct-Dec '98 to 11.71 per cent in Oct-Dec '99.