Q4 earnings: Banks prop up profits for India Inc, mask pressure in consumer, IT

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.As the fourth quarter numbers of FY26 begin to trickle in, early trends point to headline profit resilience, largely driven by financials, particularly banks. Across non-financial industries such as consumer and IT, revenue growth has held up, but profits are already under pressure, signalling a broader margin squeeze ahead.With uncertainty around the West Asia conflict persisting, Dalal Street remains cautious, as investors brace for the full impact of rising input costs to flow through to profitability from the June quarter.A Mint analysis of 220 early results shows total income rose 3.4% year-on-year, a sharp slowdown from 12% in the December quarter for the same set of companies.However, even as core operations (net sales) rose nearly 9% y-o-y to a seven-quarter high, overall topline was weighed down by a 65% fall in non-core (‘other’) income, driven by treasury losses as bond yields hardened amid the West Asia conflict in March.Meanwhile, aggregate net profit for the 220 companies rose 10% y-o-y, but the gains were largely driven by banks, masking pressure on non-financial companies amid a sharp rise in costs.Further, a 50% spike in crude oil prices in March drove raw material and service costs higher, leading to a 13% year-on-year and 20% sequential surge in overall expenses, limiting the benefit from the absence of the previous quarter’s one-off labour code adjustments.Mitesh Dalal, head of broking at Sanctum Wealth, noted that most firms were still consuming lower-cost inventory through much of the quarter, with the crude spike largely concentrated in March.