India Inc enjoyed a significant growth in the three months ended December 31 with profit growth hitting a nine-quarter high of 28 per cent from the year ago period.

However, the profit growth was mainly driven by a handful of companies from sectors like information technology (IT), automobiles, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and pharmaceuticals. On the other hand, companies from core sectors like real estate, capital goods, cement and chemicals remained under pressure.

For a sample of two thousand companies that reported their Q3 results, excluding banks, financial firms and oil & gas companies, sales jumped 12.5 per cent year-on-year in the October-December quarter. Following a gap of nine quarters, operating margin once again grew 17 per cent year-on-year.

For the FMCG sector, aggregate net profit grew 22% from the year ago, the highest in six quarters led by the impressive performance of Hindustan Unilever. The 153 IT firms in the sample reported a 22 per cent jump in aggregate sales and a 45 per cent increase in net profit. The 108 pharma firms reported a 20 per cent jump in aggregate sales. Sun Pharma and Dr. Reddy's Laboratories gave very strong performance in the quarter under review.

Lalit Thakkar, managing director at Angel Broking, said, "IT companies have largely delivered an in-line set of numbers with decent volume growth in view of a seasonally soft quarter for the sector. Pharma companies have reported a good set of results."

The IT and pharma companies were beneficiaries of higher export demand as well as year-on-year depreciation of 13-17 per cent in the rupee against the US dollar and other foreign currencies.