NEW DELHI: Core sector growth hit a 16-month high in March, marking a strong end to FY16 and pointing to a possible industrial recovery ahead of the new financial year.India’s core sector expanded 6.4% in March, data released by the government on Monday showed, higher than 5.7% in February.The eight sectors that make up core sectors index – coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilsiers, steel, cement and electricity—together have a 38% weight in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP). This suggests industrial production growth could rise further from 2% in February.“A favourable base effect, as well as the pickup in pace of expansion of the core sector and automobile production augur well for a mild improvement in IIP growth in March 2016,” Aditi Nayar, Senior Economist, ICRA Ltd.“We should see an uptick in IIP thanks to base effect and higher output of basic goods,” said Saugata Bhattacharya, Chief Economist, Axis Bank.The upbeat mood was, however, dampened by the weak manufacturing PMI for April, which suggested that this strong show may not sustain.In anticipation of a good monsoon, fertiliser output rose 22.9% in March, matching this previous high of January 2010. In March, refinery output rose 10.8% compared to a 1.5% decline in year-ago period and cement output was up 11.9%. Steel production grew 3.4% after falling constantly for eight months.“This does indicate some semblance of a recovery,” CARE Ratings said in a note before adding a caution that this, “may also largely be due to the yearend phenomenon of companies rushing to meet targets thus leading to higher production.”The growth recorded by the steel sector benefits in part from curbing of imports. Electricity production rose 11.3% in March. Coal output growth was lower at 1.7% partly driven by a buildup in inventories. Only two sectors — crude oil and natural gas showed falling output growth at -5.1% and -10.5%.