Tata Motors sales up 22% at 78,786 in September 1 Oct, 2011 Tata Motors today reported 22 per cent increase

in total sales during September to 78,786 units, but sales of its small car Nano declined 47 per cent. The company had sold a total of 64,668 units in the same month of 2010, Tata Motors said in a statement. The homegrown firm's total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market stood at 26,319 units in September, up 10.22 per cent from 23,877 units in the same month last year. The company's small car Nano's sales stood at 2,936 units during the month, down 47 per cent, the company said. The 'Indica' range reported sales of 10,282 units, up 64 per cent from September, 2010, Tata Motors said. In addition, the 'Indigo' family recorded sales of 7,793 units, a decrease of 11 per cent in comparison to the same month last year. Sales of 'Sumo', 'Safari', 'Aria' and 'Venture' grew by 60 per cent to 5,308 units. In the commercial vehicles segment, the company sold 46,247 units in the domestic market in September, compared to 35,734 units in the same month last year, up 29 per cent. Light commercial vehicle sales during the month amounted to 28,092 units, a growth of 47 per cent over last year, while medium and heavy commercial vehicle sales stood at 18,155 units, a growth of 9 per cent compared to September, 2010. The company's exports grew by 23 per cent to 6,220 units last month from 5,057 units in the same month last year, it added.

Maruti Suzuki's September sales decline 20.8% 1 Oct, 2011 Hit by labour issues and dampened consumer sentiment, automobile major Maruti Suzuki Saturday reported a decline of 20.8 per cent in its sales for the month of September, at 85,565 units as against 108,006 units in the same period of last fiscal. According to the company, the disruption in its production facility at Manesar, Haryana, due to labour issues had severely impacted sales and distribution. "The disruption in production owing to the labour issue at the company's Manesar plant during September adversely impacted the sales numbers during the month," the company said in a statement. The Manesar plant manufactures Swift, SX4 and A-star cars. Segment-wise, the company reported a decline of 23.5 per cent in its best-selling compact class brands such as Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR with the total sales at 37,324 as against 48,780 in the same period of 2009-10. The sales of mid-size compact car segment, which includes brands such as Swift, Estilo and Ritz, came down by 9.3 per cent at 19,722 units as compared to 21,749 units in the corresponding month of last fiscal. Cars such as Dzire too reported a decrease of 9.9 per cent in sales at 9,411 units from 8,566 units reported in September, 2010. Sales of sedan segment cars including SX4 declined dramatically by 90 per cent in the month under-review and stood at 196 units as compared to 1,965 units in the same period in 2010. Month-long strike at Maruti's Manesar plant ends 1 Oct, 2011 Maruti Suzuki , India's top car maker, said a month-long strike at one of its plants that severely hit production ended on Saturday after workers agreed to sign discipline agreements. Workers at Maruti's Manesar factory in Haryana walked out on August 29 after the company demanded they sign a "good conduct bond", saying some had engaged in sabotage. A Maruti spokesman said in a statement on Saturday it reached a "settlement" and that all workers had agreed to sign the "good conduct bond". Maruti will not pay the striking workers for the period of the strike, the spokesman said, adding the 44 employees against whom it had taken disciplinary action would not be taken back. Representatives of the workers were not available for comment. Maruti, 54.2 percent owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor , had said it would not compromise with the workers who were refusing to sign the discipline agreement, and was steadily hiring new employees. In June, about 800 workers went on a 13-day strike at the plant, crippling production and leading to more than $90 million in lost output.

The company did not give a figure for the production loss in the latest strike. It is due to release sales figures for September later on Saturday.

Auto sector hiring down 22% in FY'12, but outlook has improved 2 Oct, 2011 With rising fuel and interest rates affecting vehicle sales adversely, the auto sector has witnessed a 22 per cent decline in hiring activities in FY2011-12 so far, although it is upbeat on recruitment in the remaining months of the fiscal, say experts. "The job scenario will be robust in the coming months. New positions, though limited, will be created as a result of expansion of capacities and entry of new companies. The rest will be lateral and upward progression," Hyundai Senior VP (Finance and Corporate Affairs) R Sethuraman said Echoing a similar view, Ford GM (HR) Dhananjay Nair said, "The upcoming festival season will provide a boost to sales and the job market will be lucrative in the remaining months of 2011." However, he said, "Although we have hired a pretty high number of personnel in the current fiscal, it is not as high compared to last fiscal." According to a report by recruitment tendering platform MyHiringclub.com, 724 people were hired in the automobile sector during April-August, 2011, compared to 1,022 in the corresponding year-ago, translating into a 22 per cent decline. "Overall, hiring activity in the automobile industry declined by one-fourth compared to last year's hiring activity. The fuel price hike and increase in interest rates on vehicle finance had badly impacted sales in this industry," MyHiringclub.com CEO Rajesh Kumar said. Kumar further said, "A few companies - they are expanding their offices and establishing new plants -- are hiring." Auto experts are optimistic that the upcoming festival season will provide a boost to sales as well as the job market. Kumar said, "We are expecting the same hiring activity will continue till the final quarter of the current fiscal year. There is a possibility of an increase in hiring activity in the new financial year, because the auto industry can't stagnate." Experts believe that most of the recruitment will be in the sphere of sales, marketing and manufacturing and according to them, candidates having a sound technical background, flexibility and positive attitude, with an alert and creative mind, are more likely to get a job. From an organisational perspective, Sethuraman said that recruiting talented individuals that are able to gel with an organisation's culture remains a major challenge, while Nair said that attracting the right talent would be the key to success.

New launches drive up auto sales in Sep October 3, 2011 After a four-month slump, car sales picked up in September with the beginning of the festive season and new launches, especially diesel variants. Despite good response of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's (MSIL) new Swift which garnered bookings of over one lakh units, labour unrest hit the company's sales, which slumped to 78,816 units against 95,148 units sold in September, 2010. Sales of mini-segment cars, ( M800, AStar, Alto and WagonR) fell by 23.5 per cent to 37,324 units from 48,780 and the compact segment (comprising Estilo, Swift and Ritz) witnessed a 9.3 per cent dip in sales to 19,722 units from 21,749 units in September last year. Sales of SX4 fell sharply to 196 units from 1,965 units. However, sales of DZiRE, grew by 9.9 per cent to 9,411 units. Domestic sales of Hyundai Motors India Ltd (HMIL) grew by 13.2 per cent to month last year. Sales in the A2 segment ( Santro, i10 and i20) stood at 49,552 units while in the A3 segment ( Accent and Verna) sales stood at 8,051 units driven by its new Verna. Arvind Saxena, director (marketing and sales), HMIL, said, "We will launch our much- awaited compact car Eon this month. In spite of a sluggish market we expect Eon to boost our sales and increase market share." Tata Motors passenger vehicle sales stood at 26,319 units in September, up 10.22 per cent from 23,877 units last year. Sales of the Indica range were up 64 per cent at 10,282 units on account of new Vista model. The Indigo family recorded sales of 7,793 units, down 11 per cent, while sales of Sumo, Safari, Aria and Venture grew by 60 per cent to 5,308 units while sales of Nano continued to drop to 2,936 units, down 47 per cent.

General Motors India reported 17.35 per units driven by its newly launched diesel Beat. The company sold 5,261 units of Beat and 1,603 units of Spark. Nissan Motor's sales rose by 73 per cent to 2,176 units buoyed by the success of its Micra compact car, which sold 1,475 units. The recently launched diesel version of Etios sedan and Liva boosted the sales of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, which sold 12,807 units in September, more than double of last year. Volkswagen sold 6,845 vehicles in September, a growth of 39 per cent over 4,663 vehicles sold in September 2010. This was driven by the Polo and the Vento. Honda Siel Cars India, which does not offer any diesel version of its cars saw sales falling to 4,758 units in September, from 7,728 units sold last year. However, the firm expects its new small car Honda Brio launched last month to rev up its sales in the coming days.

Maruti edges up as labour row ends October 3, 2011 Defying the broader market trend, shares of Maruti Suzuki India rose almost 2 per cent in early trade on the bourses on Monday after the 33-day long standoff between the management and workers of its Manesar plant ended early on Saturday.

As per the agreement, workers agreed to sign the contentious good conduct bond laid down by the management, while the company agreed to take back 18 trainees that were suspended conditionally.

Reacting to the development, shares of Maruti Suzuki jumped by over 1.70 per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange and more than 1.56 per cent on the National Stock Exchange to an early high of Rs 1,099.85 and Rs 1,100, respectively.

The stock, however, pared some early gains as the session progressed.

The uptrend in the counter assumes significance as the broader market was trading in the red, with the 30-share Sensex trading at 16,160.85 points, down 292.91 points, and the wide-based Nifty at 90.35 points lower at 4,852.90.

Maruti Suzuki India's Manesar plant will resume full-scale production from today.

Mahindra plans affordable houses up to Rs 10 lakh October 3, 2011 Business conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra plans to make an entry into the affordable housing segment with homes priced up to Rs 10 lakh across many cities in the country.

"We are seriously considering launching affordable houses. Currently, we are carrying out a study on development of affordable homes," Mahindra Lifespace Developers Chairman Arun K Nanda said on the sidelines of the Global Initiative for Restructuring Environment and Management (GIREM) summit.

The takeover man: Anand Mahindra

He, however, declined to share further details such as when the company will launch the first such project and what could be the size of the investment involved.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers is the realty arm of Mahindra & Mahindra and presently caters to the middle and high-end housing segment. It is developing various projects in the National Capital Region, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune. It has already completed many projects in these places.

Addressing the GIREM summit, Nanda said: "The definition of affordable homes varies between different developers. As per our definition, we are targeting to build houses up to Rs 10 lakh in larger cities and for Tier-II and III cities, it will be in Rs 5-7 lakh range."

The company is planning to develop houses with sizes varying between 400 square feet and 450 sq feet, he added.

"We are targeting a construction cost of Rs 700-800 per square foot and it is possible as we are working with an efficient batch of engineers," Nanda said.

The most important thing in implementing such a project is to have discipline in construction, as the country's "construction industry is the most inefficient industry and it has to change the construction methodology to move ahead with the times," he added.

Talking about the locations, Nanda said the company is looking for areas that will have better connectivity with employment opportunities.

He also urged the government to create infrastructure and help developers acquire land at low prices to offer affordable houses.

Bajaj Auto Q2 net up 6% at Rs 726 cr October 20, 2011

Pune-based Bajaj Auto Ltd on Thursday posted profit after tax of Rs 726 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, up 6 per cent compared to the same period last fiscal.

BAL, which posted a record turnover of Rs 5,342 crore during the second quarter this fiscal, said growth in PAT was lower mainly on account of a forex loss of Rs 95 crore on valuation of forward contracts that have been charged to its profit and loss account.

"We have protected our future export realisations by entering into range forward contracts. As per the principles laid down under the accounting standard AS30, some of the range forward contracts are deemed ineffective," BAL President Finance Kevin D'sa said.

This is a purely notional loss and would get reversed on maturity of the underlying contracts, he added.

BAL said during the second quarter this fiscal, it posted record quarterly turnover of Rs 5,342 crore, up 21 per cent from the year-ago period. The company's previous highest quarterly turnover was in the first quarter of this fiscal at Rs 5,267.26 crore.

Total unit sales volume during the quarter grew 16 per cent at a record 11,64,137 units as against 10,00,570 units in the same period last fiscal, the company said.

The previous highest quarterly unit sales volume was achieved in the first quarter at 10,92,815 units.

Sensex up 154 pts ahead of RBI rate meet October 31, 2011

The BSE benchmark Sensex on Monday gained 153.64 points to close at 16,939.28 on value buying by funds in blue-chips , especially in the IT and auto sectors, and a firm global trend amid hopes that euro-zone debt troubles may ease soon.

Fag-end selling wiped off early gains as investors reduced their positions on the eve of monthly settlement in the derivatives segment and the Reserve Bank of India policy meeting on interest hike. The gauge touched an intra-day high of 17,104.88 points.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty gained 48.40 points to 5,098.35, after rising to 5,145.65 with stocks of Reliance Industries, Infosys and the auto sector.

RIL shot up by 1.30 per cent, and Infosys by 1.65 per cent.

Brokers said that despite a better trend in the overseas markets, the investor confidence remained jittery, as the monthly derivative contracts settlement has been brought forward by two days to October 25 due to Diwali Holidays.

Asian and European markets were firm as EU leaders said they have made "good progress" towards resolving the euro-zone sovereign debt crisis.

In the auto sector, Bajaj Auto spurted 3.12 per cent, Tata Motors 4.44 per cent and Maruti Suzuki by 1.46 per cent.

In a brief trading week, the market will open on Wednesday for a special Diwali's 'Muhurat' trading between 1630 and 1800 hrs, and will remain close on Thursday.