Auto stocks advance post encouraging July sales numbers; pare gains later

Maruti on Saturday announced it had sold 108,000 units in July, 88.2 per cent more than June 2020

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Shares of auto and auto ancillary companies traded with decent gains on Monday after the automakers reported encouraging sales numbers for July. The S&P BSE Auto index rallied as much as 2.6 per cent to 16,923.15 levels against Friday's close of 16,489.64 during the day.

The index, however, erased its gains later in the day and at 10:47 am, it was trading flat at 16,512.20, up just 0.14 per cent. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was ruling 418 points or over 1 per cent lower at 37,188.

Among individual stocks, Tata Motors was trading nearly 4 per cent higher at Rs 108.7 and was the top gainer on the S&P BSE Auto index. Next on the list were Amara Raja Batteries, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, and Motherson Sumi.

Maruti shares advanced as much as 2.76 per cent to Rs 6,433.85 during the day. However, at the time of writing of this report, the stock was trading over 0.4 per cent lower at Rs 6,234.20.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Saturday announced it had sold 108,000 units in July, 88.2 per cent more than June 2020, in a clear indication that people were rushing to buy new cars as the coronavirus-induced lockdown eased, and opting for private transport to maintain social distancing. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

On a year-on-year basis, too, Maruti's sales during the month were up 1.8 per cent over July 2019.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd sold 25,678 units of commercial and passenger vehicles in July 2020—indicating a month-on-month growth of 32.64 per cent. Largest two wheeler company, Hero Motocorp registered a sequential growth of 14 per cent over the previous month (June 2020) and reached more than 95 per cent of wholesale dispatch numbers of the corresponding month in the previous year (July 2019).