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New Delhi Oct. 13

THE prevailing "bull run" in the domestic stock markets will continue for at least six more months, a vast majority of the country's corporate honchos feel, according to the latest snap poll of the chief executive officers (CEOs) conducted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

The poll reveals that while 62 per cent of the respondents are optimistic about the continued bull run in the bourses for another six months, 13 per cent felt that the positive sentiments would last for only three months.

A mere six per cent of the CEOs were of the opinion that it would last for only a single month while 19 per cent stated that they could not comment on the issue.

The Chairman and Managing Director of J.M. Morgan Stanley, Mr Nimesh Kampani, the Managing Director of Tata Power, Mr Firdose Vandrevala, the Vice-Chairman of RPG Enterprises, Mr Sanjiv Goenka, the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, Mr Anand Mahindra, and the Managing Director of Volvo India, Mr U. Nordqvist, were among those who responded to the snap poll.

Disinvestment setback?: Asked to comment on the impact of the recent setback in the disinvestment of the public oil majors — HPCL and BPCL — on the privatisation initiatives of the Government, 47 per cent of the respondents felt that the impact would be moderate, while 41 per cent noted that it would significantly derail the Government's disinvestment process. Only 13 per cent of the respondents felt that it would not impact the disinvestment process at all.

Cancun talks: On the WTO negotiations in Cancun, almost 50 per cent of the CEOs stated that in the Indian context the WTO talks had been a success.

While 28 per cent felt that the talks had been successful for India, the remaining felt that it was not clear whether the talks had been successful for the country.

Forex management: A majority of the respondents (84 per cent) expected inflation to remain under control and stay within the four to five per cent band in the next quarter, while 13 per cent felt that inflation would fall below four per cent.

Almost half of the respondents felt that the measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to check the continuous appreciation of the Indian rupee vis-à-vis the US dollar would lead to stabilisation of the exchange rate in the next six months.

As regards the busy season credit policy, which the RBI is to announce soon, 47 per cent of the respondents felt that the central bank should advocate a cut in the bank rate while 30 per cent felt that there was a need to cut the repo rate.

Commenting on the prospects of their individual companies in the current fiscal, a majority (50 per cent) stated that they were expecting growth in sales to be around 10-20 per cent.

Similarly, 12 per cent said that sales growth would be between 20-30 per cent and 16 per cent expected sales growth to be between 30-50 per cent.

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