Tata Motors hits 6-year low, falls 13% on weak JLR global sales

The stock slipped 13% to Rs 185 in intra-day trade, its lowest level since January 3, 2012, on the BSE.

Shares of Tata Motors hit a six-year low of Rs 185 per share, down 13% on the BSE in intra-day trade on Tuesday, after the company-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Monday, reported a 12.3% year on year (YoY) decline in global sales at 57,114 units in September, hit by lower demand in China. The stock was trading at its lowest level since January 3, 2012, on the BSE.

“The company's sales in China declined by 46.2% during September as compared to the same month last year as ongoing market uncertainty resulting from import duty changes and continued trade tensions held back consumer demand,” JLR said in a press release.

Sales of Jaguar brand of vehicles in September were at 19,146 units, an increase of 4.4% over September 2017, the company said in a statement. Land Rover range posted sales of 37,968 units in the month, down 18.8%, it added.

“As part of the company’s continued strategy for profitable growth, JLR is focused on achieving operational efficiencies and will align supply to reflect fluctuating demand globally as required,” the company said.

"As a business, we are continuing to experience challenging conditions in some of our key markets. Customer demand in China has struggled to recover following changes in import tariffs in July and intensifying competition on price, while ongoing global negotiations on potential trade agreements have dampened purchase considerations," JLR Chief Commercial Officer Felix Brautigam said.

Despite this, we expect lower tariffs on UK imports to be beneficial over the full year, he added.

Meanwhile, JLR announced two-week shutdown at Solihull plant to align supply to reflect fluctuating demand globally. This is further to three day week from Oct-18 to Dec-18 at Castle Bromwich plant. It attributed slower production plans to weakening global demand, especially in China, and weakness in diesel sales.

In the past six months, Tata Motors has underperformed the market by falling 43% as compared to a 2.5% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

At 10:45 am; the stock was trading 12.5% lower at Rs 186.20 against 0.26% fall in the benchmark index. A combined 12.23 million equity shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE.