The first quarter of the current financial year in India has recorded positive results for the second consecutive time, the Times of India reports.

The CII-IBA Financial Conditions Index for April-June 2019 registered an index value of 68.1, contrasting with the 62.9 recorded in the fourth quarter of 2018-19.

The index surveyed 23 entities including seven state-owned banks, seven NBFCs, six private sector banks, two foreign banks and one cooperative bank.

"Considering the liquidity crunch in the financial sector, particularly faced by NBFCs (non-banking financial companies) in the past few months, it is quite heartening to see the expectation of improvement in the cost of funds index and liquidity funds index,” said CII Director-General Chandrajit Banerjee, adding that a constant score of over 50 reveals strong results for the country’s financial sector.

The results were especially boosted by certain factors, mainly external financial linkages (81), funding liquidity index (71.2), economic activity index (52.7) and cost of funds index (67.4).

“Impressive reading of external financial linkage at 81 indicates that the country is an attractive destination for external flows at this point of time,” said Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) Chief Executive Office V G Kannan.

Furthermore, Banerjee revealed that the index value is likely to keep registering optimistic results, which will mainly be driven by the new government’s focus on pushing more reforms and improving the state of the economy.