The March quarter (Q4FY25) earnings season did not deliver a strong positive surprise. The majority of experts found the results healthy, broadly in line with expectations, and in some sectors, even better than estimated. Sales, EBITDA, PBT, PAT growth for Nifty constituents were in line at 7 per cent. Oil and gas (excluding OMCs) and private banks dragged the overall profitability. Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Coal India, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Dr. Reddy's Lab, Bharat Electronics, Eicher Motors, Tech Mahindra, Trent, Mar Nifty's earnings per share (EPS) for FY25 ended at $ 1,013 (+1 per cent YoY) as the earnings normalised and tracked the revenue trend. The mid-cap segment showed remarkable resilience. Bharat Electronics (BEL), Bharti Airtel (6.6 per cent), Hindalco (5.8 per cent) are the top earnings upgrades.

Eight Nifty companies witnessed earnings upgrades of over 3 per cent in their FY26 EPS estimates, while Top earnings downgrades in FY26E are Eternal (-53.9 per cent), IndusInd Bank (-45.6 per cent) ONGC (-13.4 per cent, Tata Motors (-11.6per cent), and JSW Steel (-8.5 per cent). ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and AU Small Finance Bank were the outperformers in Q4FY25. Bank of Baroda, IndusInd Bank and Bandhan Bank missed the estimates. Motilal believes the backdrop for the IT sector remains challenging. TCS and Wipro guided for weak Q1. Infosys strikes a cautiously optimistic tone. HCL Tech leads with the most constructive guidance of 2-5 per cent YoY in constant currency.

While auto original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) posted a 5 per cent Consumer Volume growth across most companies was limited to low-to-mid-single digits. Maruti Suzuki, Amara Raja Energy & Mobility and Samvardhana Motherson International were among the key misses from the sector. According to Motilal, the sector's revenue came revenue was 8 per cent above our estimate (up 7 per cent YoY) EBITDA was 16 per centabove estimates (flat YoY), with OMCs, GAIL, and IGL beating our estimates. Ferrous companies within our coverage clocked a sales volume growth of 9 per cent YoY and 12 per cent QoQ. This growth was primarily led by the resumption of construction activity and softening imports. Nishant Kumar is an analyst and founder of Nishant Kumar Wealth Management. He is based in New Delhi, India and has worked in the financial services industry for more than a decade.