Moneycontrol Bureau
Utility vehicles and tractors manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra said it sold 32,499 units in November, lower by 22 percent compared with 41,590 units sold in year-ago period. Weak domestic performance due to currency demonetisation and post festive demand moderation impacted overall sales growth.
Domestic sales declined 24 percent year-on-year to 29,814 units while exports increased 22 percent to 2,687 units in the month gone by.
Sales were lower than analysts' expectations. Nomura had expected M&M's sales to fall 9.5 percent while Motilal Oswal estimated a 14 percent degrowth.
Passenger vehicle sales (which include utility vehicles, cars and vans) dropped 33 percent to 13,217 units and commercial vehicle sales slipped 15 percent to 12,644 units compared with corresponding month of last year.
"Demonetisation has dampened overall sentiments leading to postponed buying thereby resulting in a major drop in volumes during November. This is significant as the automotive industry had just started experiencing stability post a long and tough period of uncertainty," Pravin Shah, president & chief executive (automotive), M&M said.
Meanwhile, tractor sales also fell 21 percent in November at 17,262 units compared with 21,717 units sold in year-ago period.
Domestic tractor sales declined 24 percent year-on-year to 15,918 units while exports jumped 50 percent to 1,344 units in the month gone by.
Rajesh Jejurikar, president & chief executive (farm equipment & two wheeler division) at M&M, says he sees the demonetisation impact to be short term and expects continued growth against the backdrop of improved agriculture output which will boost tractor demand in the future.
At 14:18 hours IST, the stock was quoting at Rs 1,174.00, down Rs 11.95, or 1.01 percent on the BSE.
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