Maruti's sales jump 20.8% in Dec; shares up

Domestic sales up 13%; three-fold rise in exports

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker on Thursday reported a 20.8 per cent increase in total sales in December to 1,09,791 units.

The car maker had reported sales of 90,924 units in the same month of 2013.

Following the announcement of strong sales numbers, shares of Maruti were trading 0.50 per cent higher than their previous close on BSE, at Rs 3,344 apiece, in an otherwise weak market.

The company said its domestic sales increased 13.3 per cent during the month to 98,109 units, compared with 86,613 units in December 2013.

Exports during the month rose nearly three times to 11,682 units, compared with 4,311 a year ago, the company said in a statement.

Sales of mini-segment cars — the Alto, A-Star and WagonR — declined 9.6 per cent to 34,625 units, compared with 38,286 units in the year-ago month, the statement said.

Sales of the compact-segment cars — the Swift, Estilo, Ritz, DZire rose 23 per cent to 41,532 units, against 33,766 units in December last year, the company said in a statement.

Sales of compact sedan DZire Tour surged over two times during the month to 1,676 units, against 832 units in December 2013.

The company sold 3,731 units of mid-sized sedan Ciaz, launched in October. It had sold 271 units of SX4 sedan in December 2013. There was no sale of premium sedan Kizashi during the month.

Sales of utility vehicles — the Gypsy, Grand Vitara and Ertiga — rose 12.2 per cent to 5,774 units in the  month from 5,146 units in the same month a year ago.

Sales of vans — Omni and Eeco — increased 29.6 per cent to 10,771 units, compared with 8,312 in the same month of the previous year.