On the other hand the net profit of Grauer & Well declined by -73.1 per cent to Rs 14 lakhs from Rs 52 lakh during April-June'99. But its sales increased by 26.3 per cent during the same period.

The aggregate sales of these companies marginally declined by -0.9 per cent to Rs 2,588 crore from Rs 2,611 crore ing April-June '99. Significant decline in sales was observed in the case of AKS Credit, Asian Tea&Exports, Classic Electrical, Fortune Invest&Traders, Hytone Texstyles, Madanlal Ltd, Prakash Leasing, Silicon Valley Infotech, Sone Paper and Vatican Commercial.On the profit front, the operating profit of these companies declined by -5 per cent to Rs 304 crore from Rs 320 crore in April-June'99. Gross profit for the above number of companies also declined by -31.2 per cent to Rs 55 crore from Rs 80 crore in April-June'99.

This has happened probably due to the significant declines in gross profit of Alpic Finance (-64.7 per cent), Indian Lead (-91.5 per cent), Suman Motels (-79.3 per cent) and Super Syncotex (-83.3 per cent). But the profit before tax (PBT) of these companies was -Rs 72 crore from -Rs 39 crore in April-June'99. In terms of PBT, 29 companies have recorded an increase of 100 per cent or more. Mention may be made of AKS Credit, Indian Ropeways, KRBL, Ratnabali Capital Market and Soffia Software.

However, 49 companies have recorded a lower PBT during April-June 2000. At the profit after tax (PAT) level, 28 companies have reported an increase of more than 100 per cent with Indian Ropeways recording an increase of 850 per cent. As many as 51 companies recorded lower net profit in April-June 2000 from that of April-June'99.

Out of the 250 companies, 79 companies made losses in April-June 2000. Significant decline in the ratio of PAT to sales was observed during April-June 2000 in the case of Derby Tea&Inds (28.64 per cent in April-June'99 to 1.49 per cent in April-June'00), Esaar (India) (28.57 per cent to 10.71 per cent), Himatsingka Auto (17.95 per cent to 2.86 per cent), Inter State Oil Carrier (18.67 per cent to 1.9 per cent), Joindre Capital Services (21.61 per cent to 8.77 per cent), Sinclairs Hotels (10.2 per cent to 2.99 per cent), Sun Fund Management (58.33 per cent to 3.77 per cent) and Victoria Mills (33.33 per cent to 6.25 per cent).

An opposite trend in the ratio can be seen in the case of AKS Credit (2.08 per cent in April-June'99 to 63.64 per cent in April-June'00), Fortune Invest&Traders (20 per cent to 52.63 per cent), Hytone Texstyles (1.65 per cent to 11.86 per cent), Indian Ropeways (6.25 per cent to 26.03 per cent), Midas Pharmasec (4.76 per cent to 22.22 per cent), OTCO International (3.57 per cent to 33.33 per cent), Sidhartha Mercantile (8 per cent to 84.62 per cent) and Tokyo Finance (30.77 per cent to 66.67 per cent).

Among the 250 companies, the top five in respect of net profit as a percentage of sales during April-June 2000 were Hindustan Appliances (140 per cent), Avro Commercial (113.73 per cent), Harsh Chemicals (111.76 per cent), Sudha Apparels (98.51 per cent) and Frontline Securities (97.38 per cent). Profit after tax formed (PAT) less than 0.5 per cent of sales during April-June 2000 in the case of AKC Steel Indus, Bagaria Trading, Flawless Diamond, GG Automotive Gears, Govind Rubber, Hitkari Fibres, Indian Wood Products, KG Petrochem, Larsen Services, Malvika Steel, Premier Cereals and SPT Securities.

The highest EPS during April-June 2000 was noticed in the case of Vatican Commercial (Rs 101.68).

Aggregates
This week's additions of 250 companies with the previous 1,300 companies' first-quarter results also showed an increase in sales and profits. One thousand five hundred fifty companies' sales increased by 27.6 per cent to Rs 1,78,368 crore from Rs 1,39,831 crore in April-June'99. These companies other income also increased by 17.9 per cent to Rs 4, 819 crore during April-June 2000. The operating profit of 1,550 companies registered a rise of 17.4 per cent to Rs 43,288 crore from Rs 36, 866 crore during April-June'99. Gross profit also increased by 23 per cent to Rs 22, 219 crore in April-June 2000.

PBT and PAT showed a growth of 20.4 per cent to Rs 13,392 crore (Rs 11,121 crore in the corresponding previous quarter) and 17.8 per cent to Rs 10,556 crore (Rs 8,963 crore) respectively in April-June 2000. The profit margin (PAT to sales) of 1,550 companies declined from 6.41 per cent in April-June'99 to 5.92 per cent in April-June 2000. The average EPS of the above number of companies rose by 10 per cent to Rs 1.76 in April-June 2000 from the level of Rs 1.60 in April-June'99.