Last years run up Diwali saw a spate of heavy discounting by retailers, price led promotions were required to get Indian shoppers to spend. Those that did spend traded down from big ticket white goods, jewellery and cars as uncertainty damaged the retail trade's key sales season.

Twelve months on and it appears that increased confidence in the economy, job security and stock market performance has led consumers to loosen the purse strings.

Durable sales

Future Group are excited about this years results, CEO Kishore Biyani says, "I haven't seen this kind of Diwali in a long time, we did R's 75 crore (circa £10 million) worth of sales in electronics and consumer durables in just one day".

Samsung deputy managing Director, R. Zutshi agrees with Biyani, "The overall mood in the market is positive with strong consumer buying sentiment. Our sales this festive period are poised to grow by a healthy 40% over the same period last year"

"New buoyancy"

Tata owned Infiniti Retail who run Croma, the electronics store are experiencing sales growth of 30%. Their 37 stores sold a remarkable 1,300 digital cameras, 1,170 microwaves, and 1,100 televisions in a single day on the run up to Diwali. Ajit Joshi their chief executive says, "there is buoyancy and the sentiment is very positive compared with last year".

Sales of gold have also picked up. Tanishq the jewelry brand owned by Tata's lifestyle retail company Titan has experienced sales growth of 30% compared to last year.

Value retailers are also experiencing sales growth, Aditya Birla Retail, who mainly sell food have seen a lift. CEO Thomas Varghese said, "the turnout of shoppers in the last 10 days has been pretty good. We have seen 15% extra sales in food items".

Auto sales speed up

India' biggest auto company Maruti Suzuki aims to sell 7000 cars on Dhanteras, - first day of the five-day Diwali Festival - up on 4000 last year. Mayank Pareek comments, "We are expecting sales to reach the highest ever for Maruti's 26 year run in India.

Despite improved sentiment, confidence and sales figures Biyani does offer some caution. "People are definitely buying more but we can't call it a full recovery yet".