Amaze, EcoSport help Honda, Ford beat auto slowdown

Weak sales returned to haunt India's big car makers in November. Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai India, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra all reported fall in domestic sales last month.

However, Japanese auto maker Honda Cars India and US major Ford India bucked the trend on the back of their successful models Amaze and EcoSport respectively.

Honda Cars India sales rose 150 per cent to 9,332 units as against 3,711 units in the same month last year. Ford's domestic sales grew by 33 per cent to 7,909 units in last month.

In contrast, India's biggest car-maker Maruti Suzuki posted a decline of 5.9 per cent in its domestic sales to 85,510 units during the month. Maruti's entry level passenger cars (M800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR) grew by 3.7 per cent, but its compact cars comprising Swift, Estilo and Ritz declined by 24 per cent in November.

Hyundai's domestic sales fell 3.6 per cent to 33,501 units during the month. General Motors India reported 14 per cent decline in sales at 6,214 units, while Toyota Kirloskar Motor sales dipped slightly to 10,208 units.

India's biggest utility vehicles maker M&M reported a sharp 22 per cent decline in its domestic sales at 36,261 units. Tata Motors' domestic sales slipped by over 40 per cent to 37,192 units in November.

Most companies blamed India's sluggish economy for the extended slowdown in the auto industry.

Hyundai's senior vice-president (sales and marketing) Rakesh Srivastava, said: "After the festival season, market has been sluggish due to unfavourable macro-economic factors and low market sentiments resulting lower customer enquiries."

Two-wheeler sales grow on rural demand:

Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Yamaha reported sales growth in November, though Bajaj Auto and TVS Motor reported decline in sales during the month.

Market leader Hero MotoCorp reported 5.61 per cent rise in total sales at 5.30 lakh units in November, while Honda Motorcycle & Scooter posted 43 per cent jump in sales at 3.19 lakh units. Yamaha's domestic sales increased by 6.5 per cent to 39,777 units.

Chennai-based TVS Motor's total sales dipped 9.88 per cent to 1.35 lakh units. Bajaj Auto's sales dropped 17 per cent to 3.1 lakh units.

Trading strategy:

Ajay Shethiya, analyst (auto & auto ancillaries) at Centrum Broking told NDTV that there is significant pressure on commercial vehicle and passenger vehicle sales, though two-wheeler and tractor sales have held on to the positive territory. (Watch full interview)

Among car makers, Centrum has a positive coverage on Maruti Suzuki (year-to-date sales up by 1 per cent) and Tata Motors (based on strong traction in Jaguar Land Rover sales). The brokerage is positive on M&M on the back of brisk tractor sales. Centrum hopes tractor sales to grow by 10-12 per cent based on dealer checks and is positive on M&M.

Centrum likes Hero MotoCorp over Bajaj Auto. 47 per cent of Hero's sales come from rural market, which is expected to see double digit growth, the brokerage said.

(With inputs from agencies)