Escorts shares skid 12% as tractor sales more than halve in March

Shares of Escorts dipped 12 per cent to Rs 582 on the BSE on Wednesday after the company’s tractor sales more-than-halved at 5,444 units in the month of March 2020. The company had sold 11,905 tractors in the same month last year.

Eicher Motors said, the March 2020 sales numbers are not comparable with March 2019, as sales were impacted by nationwide lockdown.

“The domestic tractor sales in March 2020 were at 5,228 tractors against 11,431 tractors in March 2019. The export for the month at 216 tractors as against 47 4 tractors sold in the same month last year,” it said.

Meanwhile, all offices and plants across the Company will be shut till April 14, 2020 due to the nationwide lockdown announced by the Government on account of pandemic of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

For the entire financial year 2019-20 (FY20), Escorts reported 10.8 per cent year-on-year decline in total tractor sales at 86,018 units. It had sold 96,412 tractors in FY19.

With today’s fall, Escorts' share price has tanked 31 per cent in the past one month, against 26 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex.

At 02:19 pm, the stock was trading 11 per cent lower at Rs 590 on the BSE, as compared to 4.3 per cent fall in the benchmark index. The counter has seen huge trading volumes with a combined 3.3 million shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE so far.