Tata Motors climbs 7% on increase in JLR sales in the US

On month-on-month (MoM) basis, JLR sales rose 19.4 per cent.

Shares of Tata Motors jumped 7 per cent in the intra-day deals on Wednesday after reports said its flagship arm and UK-based luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover sold 12,472 units in the US, an increase of 6.2 per cent YoY against 11,744 units in November 2018. On month-on-month basis, its sales rose 19.4 per cent.

At 02:13 pm, the stock was trading at Rs 169, up 7 per cent on the BSE and was the top gainer on the S&P BSE Sensex. In comparison, the benchmark Sensex was trading 71 points lower at 40,605 levels.

The company's total domestic sales slipped 25 per cent YoY to 38,057 units against 50,470 units in the year-ago period. 

Total medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCVs) sales in November including M&HCV Truck, Buses and International Business stood at 7,736 units compared to 13,162 units last year, the company said in its press release. 

"After an encouraging festival period, in November, industry declined sharply. In addition, industry is also preparing for the BSVI transition. In line with our strategy to focus on retails, we have further enhanced our network coverage. Our retail sales were more than wholesales by 15%, which has helped us to reduce the network stock by 35% in this fiscal. We will continue with these steps that make our network agile and profitable. We are ready for the transition to BSVI with enhanced models in both petrol and diesel options and have a slew of exciting new product launches in the coming months like Nexon EV. Altroz and Gravitas," said Mayank Pareek, President at Passenger Vehicles Business Unit.

On Tuesday, Tata Motors announced the launch of ‘Tata Altroz Voice BoT’, a personalized, interactive voice experience for the Tata Altroz, using the Google Assistant. The BoT, according to the company, is designed to assist customers all along their online buying journey and enhancing their in-car connected experience. 

"Over the last three years, JLR has suffered from an adverse product/market mix and higher capex, resulting in negative free cash flow to the firm (FCFF) over FY18-20. JLR has been focused on cutting capex/cost, benefits of which have started to reflect now. Finally, the mix is normalising with a recovery in Land Rover (LR) and China. On the other hand, India business appears to have bottomed out in 2QFY20, although a full-blown recovery may be a few quarters away," wrote analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services (MOFSL).  

The brokerage has upgraded the stock to "Buy" as it believes the company offers a favorable risk-reward. The target price stands at around Rs 195.