The net sales of 425 companies marginally increased by 2.7 per cent to Rs 14, 698 crore. This has happened probably due to the significant decreases in net sales by companies like Alpic Finance, Axles India, Daewoo Motors, Harita Finance, Malvika Steel, Marvel Vinyls, Nalwa Invest, State Trading Corporation and Usha India.

The operating profit of the above number of companies rose by 3.2 per cent to Rs 3,472 crore during October-December 2000 from Rs 3,363 crore during October-December 1999. The gross profit declined by 12.8 per cent to Rs 876 crore from Rs 1,005 crore. The profit before tax (PBT) decreased by 47.9 per cent to Rs 212 crore. The net profit also declined by 81 per cent to Rs 38 crore from Rs 198 crore. So, the profit after tax (PAT) to sales ratio significantly declined from 1.38 per cent to 0.26 per cent.

Of the 425 companies, 129 registered a decline in gross profit. Significant among them are Bharat Immunologicals (72.6 per cent), Birla Global (85.6 per cent), Godavari Fert (87.3 per cent), Jenson & Nicholson (84.1 per cent), Nahar International (78.1 per cent), Premier Auto Electric (72.1 per cent) and Vishnu Sugar (96.2 per cent).

There are 39 companies which more than doubled their gross profit during the third quarter. Mention may be made of Ajay Home Products, Bagrrys India, Jyoti Overseas, Kemp & Co, Sarda Information Techno, Sinnar Bidi Udyog and Wallfort Financial.

In PBT, 40 companies witnessed an increase of 100 per cent or more during the quarter October-December 2000. Mention may be made of Bagrrys Finance, Kemp & Co, Modison Metals, Pantaloon Retail, RJ Shah & Co, SM Telesystem and Wallfort Financial.

However, 108 companies have recorded a lower PBT during October-December 2000. In the case of PAT, significant loss made by the companies during October-December 2000 are Andrew Yule (Rs 10.75 crore), Arvind Mills (Rs 86.24 crore), Cynamid Agro (Rs 13.11 crore), Daewoo Motors (Rs 114.81 crore), Ferro Alloys Corp (Rs 10.28 crore), Global Boards (Rs 10.53 crore), Gujarat Siddhi Cement (Rs 13.27 crore), Indian Acrylics (Rs 14.05 crore), JK Synthetics (Rs 14.50 crore), Konkan Railway Corp (Rs 107.94 crore), Lloyd Metals & Engineers (Rs 11.43 crore), Lloyd Steel Indus (Rs 109.73 crore), Nalwa Invest (Rs 47.41 crore) and Usha Indai (Rs 27.20 crore).

As many as 103 companies recorded lower net profit during October-December 2000. On the other hand, 35 companies witnessed an increase of 100 per cent or more.

Among the 425 companies, the top five in respect of PAT to sales ratio during October-December 2000 were Oriental Carbon (427.41 per cent), Dolat Investment (101.4 per cent), TCFC Finance (95.24 per cent), Sony Infosys (80.85 per cent) and Northern India Hotel (59.09 per cent).

PAT formed less than 0.5 per cent of sales during October-December 2000 in the case of Anukaran Commercial, Bajaj Hindustan, Central Distillery, Centram Finance, Flawless Diamonds, Godavari Fert, Govind Rubber, Gupta Synthetics, Liberty Oil Mills, Oriental Containers, Singnet Fincom, Tirupati Starch and Zenith Computers.

A significant increase in the ratio was recorded by Ajay Home Products (0.98 per cent to 11.67 per cent), Idea Space Solutions (7.35 per cent to 24.19 per cent), Kemp & Co (3.81 per cent to 19.83 per cent), Nahar Spg (5.84 per cent to 12.99 per cent) and Rajendra Mechanical Indus (0.8 per cent to 14.22 per cent).

An opposite trend can be seen in the case of Ashoka Mercantile (17.2 per cent to 4.07 per cent), ATN International (50.54 per cent to 9.01 per cent), Birla Global (26.52 per cent to 2.53 per cent), Joindre Capital (21.12 per cent to 6.69 per cent), Rural Electrification (29.26 per cent to 4.54 per cent) and Sahara India Media (100 per cent to 30.42 per cent).The average EPS of 425 companies decreased by 82.4 per cent to Rs 0.03 from Rs 0.19 during October-December 1999.

Aggregates
This week's addition of 425 companies with previous week's 814 companies third quarterly results showed an increase in sales and profits. The total of 1,239 companies sales rose by 16.6 per cent to Rs 1,65,311 crore during October-December 2000 from Rs 1,41,729 crore during October-December 1999.These companies have witnessed a rise of 12.3 per cent to Rs 5,020 crore (Rs 4,468 crore) in other income during October-December 2000.In terms of operating profit, these companies have shown a rise of 14.1 per cent to Rs 45,074 crore from Rs 39,516 crore.

The gross profit figure of 1,239 companies also increased by 15.6 per cent to Rs 22,219 crore (Rs 19,225 crore) during October-December 2000. The PBT and PAT figures of these above number of companies increased by 17.2 per cent to Rs 14,809 crore (Rs 12,640 crore) and 14.7 per cent to Rs 11,294 crore (Rs 9,850 crore) respectively during October-December 2000.

The ratio of PAT to sales ratio decreased from 6.95 per cent in October-December 1999 to 6.83 per cent in October-December 2000. But the average EPS of 1,239 companies increased by 9.1 per cent to Rs 1.78 in October-December 2000 from the level of Rs 1.63 in October-December 1999.