Maruti Suzuki’s September Sales Rise On Demand For Compacts

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki Ltd.'s sales rose for the ninth straight month in line with expectations, riding on the demand for its compact cars.

Domestic sales in September rose 10.3 percent to 151,400 units over last year, the company said in a statement to the BSE. That compares with 10-12 percent increase expected by dealers surveyed by BloombergQuint. They expected the company to outperform rivals riding on discounts.

Sales fell from 1.63 lakh units in August as dealers had largely completed restocking after the rollout of Goods and Services Tax in the previous two months. They had pared inventory in the run-up to the GST rollout.

Models like the Swift, the Baleno and the Dzire pushed domestic volumes. The segment, which contributes half of Maruti Suzuki's sales, grew at 44.7 percent over September last year. Sales of its entry-level small cars, the Alto and the Wagon R, declined.

Overall, the passenger car segment grew at 11.1 percent, while domestic passenger vehicle sales rose 9.6 percent.

Exports declined marginally to 11,671 units and also remained muted for the first half of the year ending March 2018. Total domestic sales for the first six months increased 17.1 percent to more than 7.05 lakh units