Sanguinity sustains for July-September

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) have expressed optimism about their business environment in July-September, 2018, the third straight quarter they have done so, vindicating our forecast.

The score for CriSidEx, the only lead-lag indicator of business sentiment among MSEs across India, printed at 127 for the April-June, 2018 survey quarter, well above the 121 seen in January-March, 2018 and 107 in October-December, 2017.

• Business sentiment in the April-June 2018 quarter
  
  Sectors that saw a positive trend
  
  The services sector continued to display high growth momentum. Within this, segments such as information technology (IT) & information technology-enabled services (ITeS), traders, logistics, construction & real estate, travel & hotels and professional services reported improvement in business sentiment.
  
  Respondents from the manufacturing sector said they were on a better footing than in January-March. MSEs in metals & mining, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and gems & jewellery were strongly positive. The leather & leather goods sector was largely positive barring a few respondents who reported a subdued outing.
  
  Sectors that saw a subdued trend
  
  Only respondents from the media and power & utilities sectors said they had a subdued run.
  
  
• Business sentiment for the July-September, 2018 quarter
  
  60% of the respondents from the manufacturing sector and 53% from the services sector foresee a continuation of the positive momentum.
  
  Sectors anticipating a positive trend
  
  In the services sector, respondents from IT/ITeS, logistics, traders professional services, healthcare, human resources services, and construction & real estate were the most optimistic.
  
  In manufacturing, respondents from auto components, pharmaceuticals, metals & mining, chemicals, leather & leather goods, and gems & jewellery were the most optimistic
  
  Sectors foreseeing a subdued trend:
  
  The media sector had the highest share of respondents anticipating a subdued quarter.
  
  
• Companies more optimistic than firms
  
  Classifying by legal constitution, companies were marginally more optimistic, with 46% reporting a good survey quarter compared with 44% of firms.