While the Current Conditions Index in the BCS stands at 74.5, up from 73.1 in the last survey, the Expectations Index is up from last survey's 76.2 to 77.71. The Overall Business Confidence Index is at 76.6, up from 75.2 last time.
While the participating firms have taken a conservative stand with regard to sales, profits and exports, they have given strong signals of a further pick-up in investments in the next six months.
The coming six months are likely to witness a surge in investment activity aimed primarily at capacity augmentation.
About 84 per cent of the respondents said the overall economic conditions at present were moderately to substantially better compared to the last six months and expected the trend to continue in the coming six months.
Not only did 72 per cent of the respondents rate the current performance of their industry sectors as moderately to substantially better vis-à-vis the last six months, 78 per cent said they were looking forward to a much better performance in the next six months.
At the firm level, 76 per cent of the respondents reported a moderately to substantially better current performance vis-à-vis the last six months, while 19 per cent reported to have sustained their level of performance.
On expected performance, as many as 83 per cent of the participating companies said they looked forward to a moderately to substantially better show in the coming six months, while 17 per cent said they could foresee no change in their performance.
For the next six months, 75 per cent expected higher to much higher sales and 30 per cent foresaw an increase in selling prices, with 59 per cent adhering to price maintenance and 58 per cent expecting higher to much higher profits. On the export front, 49 per cent expected higher to much higher exports.
Of the respondents polled, 62 per cent said they were planning higher to much higher investments and 37 per cent forecast a higher to much higher employment, while 59 per cent expected current levels of employment to be maintained.
The survey elicited response from 407 companies with turnovers ranging from Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) to Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion).
The respondents represented a wide array of activities and belonged to sectors like pharmaceuticals, textiles, telecom, food and beverages, heavy equipment and machinery, financial services, paper, FMCG, IT, BPO, travel and tourism, auto and auto ancillary, construction and real estate, steel, cement and petrochemicals.
