Data released earlier this month showed India’s eight infrastructure sectors constituting about 40% of IIP contracted for the first time in more than four years in August by 0.5%.

stance as long as it is necessary to revive growth. Realizing that the economic downturn is sharper than it earlier anticipated, it pared down its full year growth forecast to 6.1% in 2019-20 from 6.9% projected earlier.

Capacity utilization (CU) in the manufacturing sector, measured by the OBICUS (order books, inventory and capacity utilisation survey) of the RBI, declined to 73.6% in June quarter from 76.1% in the previous quarter. The RBI’S business assessment index (BAI) fell in September quarter due to a decline in new orders, contraction in production, lower capacity utilisation and fall in profit margins of the surveyed firms.

The Sensex and Nifty finished with smart gains on Friday, largely in tandem with global markets as hopes of a trade truce between the US and China buoyed investor sentiment.

After swinging more than 600 points in a volatile session, the 30-share Sensex ended 246.68 points, or 0.65%, higher at 38,127.08. The broader NSE Nifty rose 66.70 points, or 0.59%, to 11,301.25.

During the holiday-shortened week, Sensex advanced 453.77 points or 1.20%, while the Nifty gained 126.50 points or 1.13%.

World equities rallied on Friday after US President Donald Trump offered a positive assessment of Us-china trade talks.

The positive global cues helped offset a lacklustre start to the earnings season domestically, brokers said.

Infosys was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying 4.19%, ahead of its quarterly earnings.

Vedanta, Tata Motors, ONGC, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel too rose up to 3.96%.

On the other hand, Yes Bank, M&M, RIL, TCS, Hero Motocorp, Indusind Bank and NTPC declined up to 3.30%.

“Sensex closed in the green for the week on the back of hopes of breakthrough in the Us-china trade deal and expected government measures to revive credit growth before the festive season,” said Sanjeev Zarbade, vie president, PCG Research, Kotak Securities.

Wholesale despatches of passenger vehicles (PVS) slumped 23.7% year-on-year in September, the eleventh straight month of such decline, reflecting the slowdown in the wider economy and an overestimation of pre-festival sales by automakers.

Despatches fell to 223,317 units from 292,660 in September 2018, as the economy grappled with the impact of a protracted slowdown that started with the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) bankruptcy last year.

Indicating subdued demand in both the rural and semi-urban markets, despatches of motorcycles during the month witnessed the sharpest ever decline since 1997-98.

Despatches of passenger cars fell a massive 33.4% to 131,281 units during the month, but utility vehicles bucked the trend and rose 5.5% year-on-year to 816,25 units, helped by new launches, according to data released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) on Friday.

The decline in despatches just before the festive month of September and October indicates subdued expectations of automobile manufacturers from the festive season in October. Usually, festival season sales make up almost a third of total sales during a fiscal year and manufacturers traditionally increase despatches expecting robust sales.

Automakers in India report wholesales and not retail sales data on a monthly basis. In the last one year while wholesales of vehicles have been on a doubledigit decline, retail sales are expected to have declined in the range of 8-9%, reflecting an overestimation by manufacturers.

Automakers in the first half of the last fiscal filled their dealers with stocks despite falling showroom sales in the aftermath of IL&FS bankruptcy. As a result, this year manufacturers held back on despatches to clear existing stocks.

The commercially important festival season started with Onam in September and will continue till Diwali on October 27.

Across categories, vehicle sales in September fell a significant 22.4% year-on-year to 2,004,932 units, due to a slowdown in the economy, floods in some states and lack of credit availability from financial institutions. Sales across segments saw high