Earnings of India's top 500 firms growing faster than US peers'

Profits of India's top listed companies have been growing at a faster pace than those of their American peers, but when it comes to revenue growth, the order has reversed recently.

- KRISHNA KANT

The combined net profit of the S&P 500 companies was up 14.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during the trailing 12 months (TTM) ended December 2023, as against 17.4 per cent profit growth logged by the BSE 500 companies in the same period. This is the second consecutive year of faster profit growth for the BSE 500 companies.

The S&P 500 companies' combined net profit grew to $1,782.3 billion during the 12 months ended December 2023 from $1,561.5 billion a year ago, according to the Bloomberg data. In the same period, the combined net profit of India's top companies that are part of the BSE 500 index grew to $142.4 billion from $121.3 billion a year ago, an increase of 17.4 per cent.

In contrast, the combined revenue of the S&P 500 companies grew 6.2 per cent Y-o-Yon a TTM basis, as against the 4.6 per cent revenue growth posted by the BSE 500 companies in US dollar terms in this period. In the previous two years, the combined revenue of the BSE 500 firms had grown faster than their US peers, thus indicating a reversal in trend in CY2023.

The combined revenue of the S&P 500 companies grew to $16,813.4 billion during the 12 months ended December 2023 from $15,835 billion a year ago. In the same period, the combined revenue of the BSE500 firms increased to $1,525.6 billion from $1,458.1 billion a year ago.