As India's second fiscal quarter drew to a close, the country's corporate ledgers revealed an economy that is neither uniformly thriving nor uniformly struggling, but something more nuanced — a landscape of uneven momentum. Established consumer and automotive names demonstrated the quiet resilience of businesses rooted in everyday demand, while banks diverged along the fault lines of credit quality and margin discipline. Most tellingly, Swiggy's deepening losses amid surging revenues reminded observers that growth and sustainability are not the same promise, and that the new economy's ambition
Mixed Q2 Results: ITC, Hyundai Gain; Swiggy Losses Widen, Adani Power Slips
Losses nearly doubled even as revenue surged 54 percent
Mark
Why did Swiggy's losses widen so dramatically when revenue was growing so fast?
Mimi
Because the company is spending more to capture that growth than it's earning from it. Revenue jumped 54 percent, but expenses jumped 56 percent. In food delivery and quick commerce, you're competing on speed and price, not margins. That math doesn't work unless you can eventually cut costs or raise prices without losing customers.
Mark
And the banks—why such a split between Canara and Union Bank?
Mimi
Canara benefited from cleaning up its bad loans, which freed up capital and boosted profit. Union Bank faced the opposite pressure: loan growth slowed to less than 5 percent, and the gap between what they charge borrowers and what they pay depositors compressed. When growth slows and margins tighten at the same time, profit falls.
Mark
What does Adani Power's decline tell us?
Mimi
That even when you're selling more—revenue up nearly a percent—you can't always protect your bottom line. Something in their cost structure or pricing power shifted. It's a warning that top-line growth alone doesn't guarantee earnings growth.
Mark
So which sectors look genuinely healthy right now?
Mimi
FMCG and autos. ITC, Dabur, and Hyundai all grew profit while managing costs or riding demand. Those are sectors where companies have pricing power and can pass costs to consumers. That's not true everywhere in this earnings season.
El Pulso
- ITC and Dabur held firm on the strength of cost discipline and steady consumer demand, even as top-line revenues softened slightly.
- Hyundai's 14.3% profit surge on robust exports signaled that Indian manufacturing can punch outward, not just inward.
- Canara Bank's 19% profit jump and Union Bank's 10% decline exposed a widening fault line within public sector banking, where loan quality and margin management are separating winners from laggards.
- Adani Power's inability to translate marginal revenue growth into profit pointed to mounting margin pressures in the energy sector.
- Swiggy's losses nearly doubling to Rs 1,092 crore — even as revenues leapt 54% — crystallized the defining paradox of platform-era growth: scale accelerates costs faster than it builds profit.
- The quarter lands as a cautionary mosaic: traditional sectors are holding, but the high-growth, high-burn corners of the economy are still searching for a viable path forward.
As India's second fiscal quarter drew to a close, the country's corporate ledgers revealed an economy that is neither uniformly thriving nor uniformly struggling, but something more nuanced — a landscape of uneven momentum. Established consumer and automotive names demonstrated the quiet resilience of businesses rooted in everyday demand, while banks diverged along the fault lines of credit quality and margin discipline. Most tellingly, Swiggy's deepening losses amid surging revenues reminded observers that growth and sustainability are not the same promise, and that the new economy's ambitions still carry an old and unresolved tension.
A dozen major Indian companies opened their books for Q2 FY26, and the picture was decidedly uneven — an economy where momentum is real in some corners and fragile in others.
The clearest strength appeared in consumer staples and automobiles. ITC posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,186.55 crore, up from Rs 5,054.43 crore a year earlier, achieving the gain not through revenue growth — which actually dipped slightly — but through meaningful cost reduction. Dabur added a more modest 6.5 percent profit increase to Rs 444.79 crore, with revenues climbing 5.3 percent. Hyundai Motor India was the quarter's most emphatic performer in the sector, reporting a 14.3 percent profit jump to Rs 1,572.26 crore on the back of robust exports. Cipla kept pace with a 3.7 percent profit rise and stronger 7.6 percent revenue growth.
Banking told a more complicated story. Canara Bank stood out with a 19 percent profit surge to Rs 4,774 crore, aided by declining bad loans and rising total income. Union Bank moved in the opposite direction — profit fell 10 percent to Rs 4,249 crore as loan growth stalled below 5 percent and net interest margins compressed from 2.90 percent to 2.67 percent. Aditya Birla Capital navigated the middle ground with a modest 3 percent profit increase.
Adani Power offered a cautionary note from the energy sector: despite a marginal revenue increase, net profit fell 11.8 percent to Rs 2,906.46 crore, suggesting that higher revenues alone cannot overcome underlying margin pressures.
The quarter's most striking narrative, however, belonged to Swiggy. The food delivery and quick commerce platform watched its losses nearly double to Rs 1,092 crore even as revenues surged 54 percent to Rs 5,561 crore. Expenses outpaced that growth, climbing to Rs 6,711 crore. The widening chasm between what Swiggy earns and what it spends laid bare the brutal economics of platform-era commerce — where scale and profitability have proven stubbornly resistant to arriving together.
A dozen major Indian companies opened their books for the second quarter of the fiscal year, and the picture they painted was decidedly uneven. Some sectors hummed along nicely. Others stumbled. The earnings season that wrapped today—spanning everything from FMCG giants to banks to a struggling food delivery startup—told the story of an economy where momentum is real in some corners and fragile in others.
The strength showed up first in the companies that make things people buy without thinking much about it. ITC, the sprawling conglomerate with fingers in cigarettes, hotels, and packaged foods, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,186.55 crore for the quarter ending in September, up from Rs 5,054.43 crore a year earlier. The company managed this despite a slight dip in revenue from operations, which fell to Rs 21,255.86 crore from Rs 21,536.38 crore. The win came from controlling costs—total expenses dropped to Rs 15,016.02 crore from Rs 15,415.21 crore. Dabur India, another FMCG stalwart, posted more modest but still solid gains: a 6.5 percent year-over-year profit increase to Rs 444.79 crore, with revenue climbing 5.3 percent to Rs 3,191 crore.
The automotive sector looked even stronger. Hyundai Motor India reported a 14.3 percent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,572.26 crore, riding on what the company attributed to robust exports. Revenue from operations inched up to Rs 17,460.82 crore from Rs 17,260.38 crore. Cipla, the pharmaceutical major, also kept pace with a 3.7 percent profit increase to Rs 1,353.37 crore, though its revenue growth was more pronounced at 7.6 percent to Rs 7,589.44 crore.
The banking sector presented a more complicated picture. Canara Bank emerged as the quarter's standout performer among lenders, posting a 19 percent jump in net profit to Rs 4,774 crore, helped by a decline in bad loans. Total income rose to Rs 38,598 crore from Rs 34,721 crore. But Union Bank of India, a state-run competitor, moved in the opposite direction—profit fell 10 percent to Rs 4,249 crore. The culprit was a combination of softer loan growth, which came in at less than 5 percent, and a compression in the net interest margin that narrowed to 2.67 percent from 2.90 percent a year earlier. Core net interest income dipped 2.6 percent to Rs 8,812 crore.
Aditya Birla Capital, the financial services arm of the Aditya Birla Group, managed a 3 percent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 855 crore, with total income rising to Rs 10,609 crore. Interest income climbed notably to Rs 5,003 crore from Rs 4,141 crore.
Then there was Adani Power, which reported an 11.8 percent decline in net profit to Rs 2,906.46 crore despite posting a marginal 0.88 percent revenue increase to Rs 13,456.84 crore. The company's inability to convert higher revenue into higher profit suggested margin pressures in the power sector.
But the most striking story of the day belonged to Swiggy, the food delivery and quick commerce platform. The company's losses nearly doubled to Rs 1,092 crore for the quarter, compared to Rs 626 crore a year earlier. This happened even as revenue from operations surged 54 percent to Rs 5,561 crore from Rs 3,601 crore. Expenses, however, shot up even faster—to Rs 6,711 crore from Rs 4,309 crore. The widening gap between what Swiggy brings in and what it spends underscores the brutal economics of the food delivery and quick commerce business, where growth and profitability have proven stubbornly difficult to achieve in tandem. For investors watching the company's path to profitability, the quarter offered little comfort.
Citas Notables
Swiggy's expenses shot up to Rs 6,711 crore from Rs 4,309 crore, outpacing revenue growth and widening losses— Q2 FY26 regulatory filing
Union Bank's core net interest income dipped 2.6 percent due to softer loan growth of less than 5 percent and margin compression— Union Bank Q2 results
Quieres la nota completa?
Lee el original en The Financial Express ↗
Business