EconomyBusiness and investment
Are listed companies turning sales into profits?
Listed private non-financial companies' sales grew 19.4% over the year to Q1 FY27. Operating profit grew 19.3% over the year to Q1 FY27.
Written for readers following Indian business and investment. Readings assessed on 25 Oct 2026.
Are profits growing with sales?
The RBI's study follows listed private companies outside finance. Growth compares matched companies with a year earlier; it does not compare the totals of two changing samples.
Sales and operating profit growth
Quarterly, % on a year earlier, nominal rupees, matched companies.
How to read it. If operating profit grows faster than sales, profitability is improving within that comparison. Both series include price changes; neither measures growth in volumes alone.
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What remains after operating costs?
Operating profit was 16.4% of sales in Q1 FY27. The margin measures what remained after operating costs, before interest and tax.
The operating margin
Quarterly, operating profit as % of sales; the period's own reporting sample.
How to read it. A higher margin means more operating profit for each rupee of sales. Changes can also reflect a different mix of reporting companies and industries.
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How much room is there to service debt?
Earnings before interest and tax covered interest payments 7.4 times in Q1 FY27. The aggregate can conceal firms struggling to service debt.
Earnings against interest payments
Quarterly, earnings before interest and tax divided by interest expense, times.
How to read it. Higher cover means more earnings relative to interest costs. This aggregate cannot show how many firms have weak debt coverage.
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How much of Indian business is in this picture?
The latest sales-growth sample covered 3,247 companies in Q1 FY27. The RBI compares matched companies within each release; membership changes across releases.
The reporting sample changes
Quarterly company count in the RBI's matched sales-growth comparison.
How to read it. The count makes changes in coverage visible. It is a reporting sample, rather than a count of every listed company in India.
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A comparable capital-expenditure series is not available in these results. Higher profits show an ability to fund investment; they do not show that firms have bought new assets.
Explore the full company-results study for industry and size splits.
What the numbers can't tell you
- Investment includes more than companies
- National fixed investment includes housing, public infrastructure and corporate assets. Neither the national total nor industrial production isolates private corporate capex.
- Factory surveys cover their respondents
- OBICUS covers manufacturing firms that respond to the RBI. Respondent numbers and composition change. Seasonal adjustment can revise earlier readings, and services capacity is outside this factory measure.
- The accounting base matters
- GDP and industrial-production revisions change coverage and measurement. GDP bases stay separate here; industrial growth is calculated within each base, with changes marked on the chart.
- Listed companies are only one part of business
- The company panel excludes financial firms, government companies and unlisted businesses. Matched-company growth reduces sample-change distortions within a release; it does not make a fixed or economy-wide panel.
- Opinions and lending are supporting evidence
- An optimistic response is not an investment order. Bank borrowing pays for working capital as well as assets, while investment may be financed from retained profits or other sources.
The workings
The question
Data
Each measure keeps its own period. Charts of the RBI's own readings hide table and download controls. Bundles are listed in data status.