(MENAFN- IANS) Mumbai, Nov 20 (IANS) Aggregate earnings of companies in the Nifty-500 universe grew 15 per cent in Q2 FY26, the highest in five quarters, despite geopolitical headwinds and weak consumption trends, a report said on Thursday.

Oil and Gas stocks, led by OMCs, contributed significantly to this surge with their EBITDA and PAT up 48 per cent and 59 per cent, the report from brokerage Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL) said.

Excluding metals, oil and gas stocks, aggregate earnings of the Nifty 500 universe grew only 9 per cent (on-year).

Excluding financial stocks, the Nifty 500 universe reported aggregate earnings up 20 per cent YoY.

The sales, EBITDA and adjusted PAT grew to about Rs 35 trillion, Rs 8 trillion, and Rs 4 trillion, respectively, up 8 per cent, 12 per cent and 15 per cent year‐on‐year.

Corporate earnings were reasonably broad-based as earnings of NBFCs rose 21 per cent; metals gained 18 per cent; cement surged 211 per cent; capital goods grew 30 per cent; telecom moved from loss to profit; retail advanced 32 per cent, and real estate went up 22 per cent.

Cement reported its second strong quarter after weak prior quarters as its sales and EBITDA rose 18 per cent and 49 per cent YoY, respectively, with reported earnings up 3.1 times YoY.

Chemicals and consumer durables recorded strong growth on a soft base, while automobiles fell 16 per cent, private banks slipped 3 per cent and media dropped 10 per cent.

Ferrous companies performed strongly on volumes and lower costs; non-ferrous gains were driven by favourable metal prices and steady volumes.

Midcaps and smallcaps outperformed, as Midcap‐150 earnings grew 27 per cent and Smallcap‐250 went up 37 per cent. Weaknesses in private banks and automobiles led to relative underperformance of the large-cap universe versus SMIDs, said the report.

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