Maruti Suzuki Rises On Record Sales Growth In May

Shares of Maruti Suzuki Ltd. gained as much as 2.8 percent to Rs 8,780 apiece after the automaker reported best sales growth in May in over a decade. The stock was the second-best performer on the NSE Nifty 50 Index.

The country's largest car maker sold 1.72 lakh units last month, up 26 percent from the year-ago period, driven by increased demand for the compact segment.

Maruti's passenger car sales surged 25.4 percent year-on-year to 1.19 lakh units in May, with sales of compact cars such as Swift, Celerio, Baleno, and DZire climbing 50.8 percent. The mini segment with Alto and WagonR in its fleet recorded a 3.1 percent decline in its sales. Sales of Ciaz also fell 14.8 percent from last year on the back of increased competition with Hero Honda's City, Volkswagen's Vento, among others.

In the light commercial vehicles segment, Maruti's ‘Super Carry' sales quadrupled to 1,703 units last month. Last year, the company had sold just 428 units of this model. Utility vehicles' sales also rose 13.4 percent year-on-year to 25,629 units.

The automaker's exports also gathered pace last month with export sales rising over 48 percent in the last one year to 9,312 units.

Other Sales Highlights:

• Domestic passenger sales rose 24 percent YoY to 1.61 lakh units.
• Sale of vans like Omni, Echo advanced 32.7 percent YoY to 16,717 units.
• Domestic sales jumped nearly 25 percent YoY to 1.63 lakh units.