India’s listed private non-financial companies continued to show strong growth in Q4 FY26. Based on data from 3,266 listed companies, overall sales grew by 13.9% year-on-year (YoY) in Q4 FY26, improving from 10.1% in the previous quarter. This indicates that business activity remained healthy across sectors.
The manufacturing sector performed well, with sales of 1,817 listed manufacturing companies rising 14.5% YoY, compared with 11.4% growth in the previous quarter. The improvement was mainly driven by the automobile, electrical machinery and non-ferrous metals industries. IT companies also reported stronger growth, with sales increasing 9.9% YoY versus 8.8% in the previous quarter.
Non-IT services companies recorded the strongest performance among major sectors. Their sales growth accelerated sharply to 20.3% YoY in Q4 FY26 from 10.6% in the previous quarter, supported mainly by higher sales in the wholesale and retail trade segment.
On the cost side, manufacturing companies faced rising input costs. Raw material expenses increased 18.3% YoY, while the raw material-to-sales ratio rose to 58.5% from 57.5% in the previous quarter, indicating greater cost pressure. Staff cost growth in manufacturing moderated to 9.8% YoY. In services, staff costs grew 8.9% for non-IT companies, while IT sector staff cost growth remained broadly unchanged. Staff cost-to-sales ratios stood at 5.3% for manufacturing and 9.4% for non-IT services.
Higher input costs affected profitability, particularly in manufacturing. Operating profit growth of manufacturing companies slowed to 9.4% YoY from 11.8% in the previous quarter. In contrast, operating profit growth improved to 14.1% for IT companies and 6.5% for non-IT services companies. Operating profit margins in Q4 FY26 were 13.8% for manufacturing, 22.1% for IT, 19.3% for non-IT services, and 15.4% at the aggregate level.
Financial health remained stable overall. Manufacturing companies’ interest coverage ratio (ICR) improved to 9.5 from 9.0 in the previous quarter, reflecting stronger profit growth relative to interest expenses. Non-IT services companies maintained an ICR of 2.3, while IT companies continued to report a strong and elevated interest coverage position during Q4 FY26.
