Tata Motors in focus, surges nearly 8%; Nifty Auto index trades lower

Tata Motors surged nearly 8 per cent in the intra-day session on Wednesday. The auto major unveiled a series of cars and commercial vehicles at the Auto Expo 2020. The company launched the much-anticipated Harrier 2020 at an introductory price of Rs 13.69 lakh for Manual and Rs 16.25 lakh for Automatic.

At 01:20 pm, the stock was trading 7.5 per cent higher at Rs 178 apiece on the NSE. It hit a high of Rs 178.8, up around 8 per cent. The Nifty Auto index, however, was trading in the red at 8,084 levels, down 0.2 per cent. The benchmark Nifty index was trading 40 points or 0.33 per cent higher at 12,019.50 levels.

Besides, the automobile company also showcased seven-seater SUV Gravitas, Tata Sierra, and Tata HBX micro SUV.

Tata Motors on Saturday reported a 17.74 per cent decline in total sales at 47,862 units in January. It had sold a total of 58,185 units in January 2019, the company said in a statement.

Total domestic sales were down 18 per cent at 45,242 units as compared to 54,915 units in January last year, it added.

Passenger vehicle sales in the domestic market during the month stood at 13,894 units as against 17,826 units in the same month of the previous year, down 22 per cent.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2019, the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,755.88 crore, mainly helped by higher Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sales in China, but warned of general economic slowdown continuing to impact domestic auto industry. Its consolidated total revenue from operations stood at Rs 71,676.07 crore in the December quarter compared to Rs 76,915.94 crore in the same period a year ago.

Revenues from British arm Jaguar Land Rover rose to 6.4 billion pounds in the quarter under review, an increase of 2.8 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

On a standalone basis, the company posted a net loss of Rs 1,039.51 crore in December 2019 quarter. In the comparable period a year ago, it had a profit of Rs 617.62 crore.

Standalone total revenue stood at Rs 10,842.91 crore in third quarter of current fiscal whereas the same was at Rs 16,207.67 crore in the year-ago period.