New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS): India clocked 129 deals valued at $2.1 billion in the month of October, a 42 per cent fall in volumes and a significant 77 per cent decline in values as compared to October last year, a report showed on Tuesday.

When compared to September, the deal volumes witnessed an 11 per cent decline while values decreased by 49 per cent due to the absence of big-ticket transactions, according to Grant Thornton Bharat's Dealtracker October 2022 report.

The M&A (merger and acquisition) space recorded 33 deals at $692 million, witnessing a significant downtrend both in terms of deal volumes by 47 per cent and deal values by 79 per cent.

The start-up sector led the volumes with 27 per cent of the deals driven by the enterprise application segment followed by autotech and edtech segments.

"In view of inflation, with ongoing improvement in domestic economic activity supported by private consumption growth and expected support from festive season demand, Indian domestic demand showed a relatively healthy growth trend," said Shanthi Vijetha, Partner, Growth at Grant Thornton Bharat.

Owing to this, macroeconomic strength continues to manifest in the form of improving high-frequency consumption and industrial indicators.

"Considering this, we expect domestic deal activity to continue, if not grow, in the coming months," Vijetha added.

Private equity investments recorded $1,448 million across 96 deals. The PE investment trend witnessed a drop, both in terms of deal values and volumes, over October 2021, said the report.

The year to date (YTD) 2022 recorded 23 initial public offerings (IPO) with an issue size of $8.8 billion, compared to 43 IPO issues raising $23.5 billion in YTD 2021.