Indian Auto: May'12 sales scorecard by FinQuest Sec

Passenger Vehicles: Passenger car sales continue to be sluggish while UVs outshine in May'12- Maruti Suzuki's (MSIL) sales declined in May'12 due to the fall in sales of its petrol driven passenger cars while Swift hatch and notchbacks (Dzire) continue to post stellar growth with the new Ertiga MPV also pitching in with healthy volumes thus reducing the effect of the slowdown. M&M posted a 28% Y-o-Y growth in passenger vehicle sales on the back of customers queuing up to buy the best selling UVs and SUVs from the M&M's stable. Tata Motors (TML) witnessed slowdown in its passenger vehicle sales of cars were flat Y-o-Y while UVs grew just 3%.

-Ve for Tata Motors (TML), Maruti, +Ve for M&M

Commercial Vehicles- LCVs post robust growth but MHCVs continue to disappoint: In the M&HCV space, volumes suffered on the back of a steep 5% hike in excise duty (10-15%) on truck chassis while the truck rentals on trunk routes also declined by 4% during May'12 which is the 2nd consecutive month in this fiscal that rentals have dropped. However the performance was mixed by different MHCV players. In the goods carrier segment Ashok Leyland (ALL) (up 6% Y-o-Y), Eicher motors (VECV) (up 1% Y-o-Y) and M&M (up 28% Y-o-Y) gained at the expense of TML (down 23% Y-o-Y). M&M and VECV gained on the back of lower penetration and technology tie-ups. On the LCV front, M&M continued its growth trajectory with better products and a smaller base while TML also witnessed growth on the back of good offtake from Magic iris. ALL benefited from good traction from its Dost LCV as it continued its monthly run rate of 2,200+ units.

- +Ve for M&M, VECV, ALL, -Ve for TML

Two-wheelers: HMSI is the only player that's gaining in the sluggish 2W market. Domestic listed players continue to witness slowdown: Market leader Heromoto Corp. Ltd. (HMC) was the better performer among domestic listed players. HMC's domestic 2W sales grew 11% Yo- Y while that of BAL and TVS declined by 4% each. The 2W sales have been sluggish over the past few months but HMC has more than once outperformed its domestic listed peers due to its presence in both the motorcycle and scooter segments coupled with its block buster products Splendor and Passion. Domestic volumes have succumbed due to the lack of new models from BAL. Even though BAL launched the KTM Duke 200 which is doing monthly volumes of ~3000 units, which is still small to push the overall growth. On the other hand BAL announced the price of the much awaited Pulsar 200 NS @ Rs 84,096 (ex-Pune) which is very good value for money taking into account its nearest competing products like the CBR 150R , Yamaha R15 are priced at a premium of Rs 20-30k.

-Ve for BAL in the short run, -Ve for TVS, +Ve for Heromoto on the back of new launches