Might have to wait for Sunny days even as SBI Composite Index improves in February

MUMBAI: The yearly SBI Composite Index (year-on-year or y-o-y) for February 2017 improved to 49.5 compared to last month’s index of 47.0, indicating some improvement in sentiment. But full-fledged recovery in output may take some more time as index declines sequentially.

The monthly Index declined marginally to 49.2 in February 2017 from 50.9 in Jan 2017 which means that IIP growth may continue to contract in January and February 2017, said a report by the bank’s research team. The SBI Composite Index is a leading indicator for manufacturing activity in Indian Economy. It aims to foresee the periods of contraction and expansion. The index has two components namely SBI Monthly Composite Index and SBI Yearly Composite Index.

Meanwhile, a study of the financial performance of 3092 listed entities excluding banks, Finance and Refineries, which declared results for nine months ending December 2017, showed a growth of 2.2 per cent in the top line. EBDITA or earnings before depreciation, interest tax and amortisation and PAT or profit after tax grew by 12.36 per cent and 15.4 per cent respectively as compared to the trend in the same period a year ago.

IT, hardware, sugar, agrochemicals, healthcare, capital Goods – electrical equipment, paper, cement, Steel etc. have reported better growth numbers in sales (top-line) whereas sectors such as construction, fertilizers, engineering, edible oil, shipping etc have recorded negative growth in revenue during the same period, the report said.