Oil and Natural Gas Corporation is India's most profitable company. Its net profit was Rs 2,134.54 crore (Rs 21.34 billion) in the quarter ended June 2003. In 2002-03, ONGC was the first company in the country to post a net profit of over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion).

Reliance Industries, the first private company to post a quarterly net profit of over Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), ranks second with a net profit of Rs 1,104 crore (Rs 11.04 billion).

Indian Oil Corporation is third with Rs 944.67 crore (Rs 9.45 billion), the State Bank of India fourth with Rs 913.5 crore (Rs 9.13 billion) and Hindustan Lever fifth with Rs 450.93 crore (4.51 billion).
 
The net profits of the top 100 Indian firms account for 83.5 per cent of the total profits earned by the 1,308 companies which have declared quarterly results till Saturday.

Net profits of these 100 firms, however, grew at a slower pace of 36.24 per cent against the 40 per cent net profit growth registered by the entire corporate sector.

Among the top 100 profitable firms, 26 are banks, nine are from the pharmaceutical sector, seven from refineries, six each from the automobile and infotech sectors, four each from cement and diversified sectors and three each from power and shipping.

Steel Authority of India and Shipping Corporation of India, which have posted turnaround in the first quarter, are among the top 100 profitable firms.

SAIL ranked 13th with a net profit of Rs 254.69 crore (Rs 2.55 billion), and the Shipping Corporation was 29th with Rs 150.25 crore (Rs 1.50 billion).

IT giant Infosys Technologies ranked 10th in the list and Wipro 19th. Tata Steel (11th), Ranbaxy (18th), Hindalco (20th), Bajaj Auto (24th) and Hero Honda (25th) are among the top 25.

Meanwhile, 1,250 companies in the manufacturing sector have posted healthy performance in the quarter ended June 2003.

Sales increased 11.86 per cent and net profits a hefty 40.15 per cent. Interest costs were 16.74 per cent lower, and depreciation increased by 7.53 per cent.

Profit margins -- at the operating, gross and net levels -- showed robust growth. Operating profit margins moved up from 14.18 per cent in the first quarter of 2002-03 to 14.65 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2003.

Gross profit margins increased from 10.7 per cent to 12.06 per cent, and net profit margins from 4.67 per cent to 5.85 per cent.

The sharp jump in corporate profits can be attributed to a decline in interest costs and a strong revival in sectors such as steel and shipping. The number of companies making net losses also declined from 362 to 321.

Interest cost savings by the 1,250 companies aggregated at Rs 1,128 crore (Rs 11.28 billion), accounting for 31 per cent of the rise in net profits. In absolute terms, the net profit of the firms increased by Rs 3,640 crore (Rs 36.40 billion).

As many as 106 companies have posted turnarounds so far, with an aggregate net profit of Rs 635.53 crore (Rs 6.35 billion) as against an aggregate net loss of Rs 592.29 crore (Rs 5.92 billion) in the quarter ended June 2002. The net loss of loss-making companies also declined from Rs 2,260 crore (Rs 22.60 billion) to Rs 1,737 crore (Rs 17.37 billion).