Feroze Azeez clarifies that Nifty’s reported 6.5% earnings growth is misleading due to index constituent changes. When considering only the current Nifty stocks, actual earnings growth was 11%. Similarly, NSE Smallcap 250 saw 63 changes, and without those replacements, earnings growth was not negative 9% but actually positive 18%. According to Azeez, true earnings strength can only be assessed by comparing like-for-like stocks.