Ashok Leyland advances 9% as Co reports market share gain in March quarter

Sequentially, MHCV truck volumes for Ashok Leyland have grown by 57 per cent in Q4FY21 which was higher than the industry growth of 53 per cent

Shares of Ashok Leyland zoomed 9 per cent to Rs 129.35 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday as the company's market share improved 0.8 per cent to 28.9 per cent in the March 2021 quarter (Q4FY21) from 28.1 per cent in December 2020 quarter (Q3FY21). The stock of the commercial vehicles' company was trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 138.85, touched on February 4, 2021.

"Sequentially, over Q3FY21, medium and heavy commercial vehicles (MHCV) truck volumes for Ashok Leyland have grown by 57 per cent in Q4FY21 which was higher than the industry growth of 53 per cent, thereby resulting in market share improvement during the quarter. MHCV truck volumes have grown at 111 per cent year on year (YoY) which is better than the rate of growth of the industry," the company said in a press release.

Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of Hinduja Group, reported an 82 per cent YoY jump in revenue at Rs 7,000 crore in Q4FY21 as against Rs 3,838 crore reported in Q4FY20. The company posted profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 242 crore against a loss of Rs 57 crore in the year-ago quarter. Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) margin too expanded to 7.6 per cent as against 4.8 per cent last year.

Going forward, Ashok Leyland expects good opportunities in the industry would help it grow the exports, defence, power solutions, light commercial vehicles (LCV) and parts business even as it expands the reach and products of the core MHCV business. The emerging businesses such as electric vehicle (EV) and customer solutions (CSB) will assist in complementing the core business, the company said.

At 11:41 am, Ashok Leyland was trading 6 per cent higher at Rs 125 on the BSE, as compared to a 0.06 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. Trading volumes on the counter more than doubled with a combined around 68 million shares having changed hands on the NSE and BSE.