Bajaj Auto Shares Recover After Falling 2%

Shares in Bajaj Auto recovered to positive territory after falling nearly 2 per cent to Rs 2,365 in the morning trade. The two-wheeler maker reported its second quarter earnings on Tuesday post market hours, which were at par with market estimates.

Bajaj Auto's net profit for the July-September quarter fell 29 per cent to Rs. 591 crore compared with the same period a year ago, after accounting for the charge of Rs. 340 crore. Its adjusted net profit came in at Rs 853 crore against Rs 837 crore year-on-year (y-o-y).

Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated it's net profit at Rs 855 crore. Its income from operations rose to Rs. 5,963 crore compared with Rs. 5,175 crore a year ago.

Bajaj, which competes at home with Hero MotoCorp and Honda Motor Co's two-wheeler unit, is pushing exports of its motorcycles to regions including Africa and Latin America to offset weak domestic sales hit by a growing preference for scooters.

Sales of Bajaj's motorcycles in the domestic market fell 11.65 per cent to 952,492 units in the six months ended September 30 from a year earlier, whereas exports rose 30 per cent to 821,519 units over the same period.

S Ravikumar, president-business development at Bajaj Auto told NDTV that export business is not likely to witness more competition and margins in the export business are unlikely to fall.

Gross profit margins of the two-wheeler maker came in at 20 per cent in the reporting period against estimates of 20.2 per cent.

Surjit Arora, auto analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, speaking to NDTV said that decline in domestic market share will be restricted for Bajaj Auto from here onward. New product launches will lead to 12-15 per cent volume growth for them in the domestic market on the back of lower base, added Mr Arora.

As of 10.45 a.m. shares in Bajaj Auto traded 0.12 per cent lower at Rs 2,409 apiece.

(With inputs from Reuters)