India's biz sentiment to remain subdued during Jul-Sep: D&B

The underlying business sentiment in India during July-September quarter of calender 2015 is likely to remain subdued amid concerns of weak factory data and potential impact of deficient monsoon, a study said today.

According to research firm Dun & Bradstreet, the Business Optimism Index, which measures the pulse of the business community, stood at 127.2 for the July-September quarter, registering a mere increase of 0.2 percentage as compared to the previous three-month period.

The index for the third quarter of 2015 seems subdued "amid concerns surrounding the contraction in industrial production and the potential impact of deficient monsoon rainfall on rural demand and inflation", Dun & Bradstreet India President and Managing Director Kaushal Sampat said.

According to the study, the economic weakness in the domestic market was compounded by lower growth in China and continuing financial woes in Europe that raised doubts about the strength of growth of the world economy.

"These developments during the survey period could have played a role in pulling back expectations regarding new orders and employee levels thus tempering business confidence for Q3 2015," Sampat added.

Sampat further noted that for business confidence to improve significantly, it is important that some key bills get passed during the monsoon session of Parliament.

"Going forward, the progress of the monsoon will also play a crucial role in shaping business sentiment," he added.

The monsoon session of the Parliament has begun today.

For calculating the composite BOI, each of the six parameters -- net sales, net profits, selling prices, new orders, inventories and employee levels -- is assigned a weight.

The parameter weights are then applied to these ratios and the results aggregated to arrive at the Composite Business Optimism Index.