Solid Mahindra Scorpio-N bookings help Street digest mixed monthly sales

Solid demand for the all-new Mahindra Scorpio-N helped investors take their mind off monthly sales numbers from peers. Mahindra & Mahindra shares on Tuesday hovered near a 52-week peak touched the previous day, when it had powered the Nifty Auto's biggest jump in five weeks.

The auto basket was a mixed bag on Tuesday, a day after most stocks in the space saw high demand on Dalal Street even as companies posted a set of hits and misses in monthly sales numbers.

The launch of the Mahindra Scorpio-N comes at a time when carmakers such as Maruti Suzuki have been losing market share in the utility vehicle segment.

Mahindra & Mahindra said on Saturday that it received one lakh bookings for the all-new Scorpio-N within 30 minutes, translating into an ex-showroom value of around Rs 18,000 crore. The auto major said there has been extraordinary customer enthusiasm for the vehicle, with 25,000 bookings within the first minute itself.

Mahindra & Mahindra will begin deliveries of the Scorpio-N from September 26.

Nomura said the Scorpio-N should transform Mahindra's image into that of a lifestyle SUV maker, and has the potential to incrementally add 10-15 percent upside to the auto major's overall utility vehicle volume in the period from the current financial year till March 2024.

Maruti Suzuki has been losing market share in the utility vehicle segment.

Monthly sales data from the sector, however, was a mixed bag.

M&M's total sales jumped 30.6 percent on year to 56,148 units last month. Its domestic passenger vehicle sales came in at 28,053 units, up 33 percent compared with the year-ago period. 

Mahindra's exports jumped 32 percent to 2,798 vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki — India's largest carmaker — reported total sales of 1.75 lakh units for the month, as against Nomura’s estimate of 1.76 lakh. Its total sales increased 8.3 percent on a year-on-year basis.

Sales of passenger vehicles in the domestic market rose 6.8 percent to 1.42 lakh vehicles, according to Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti's exports, however, fell 4.3 percent to 20,311 vehicles, according to a filing.

Tata Motors' total sales jumped 51 percent to 81,790 units, according to a regulatory filing. The monthly sales number, however, fell short of Nomura’s estimate of 83,100 units.

Its total passenger vehicles sales in the domestic market went up 57 percent to 78,978 units.

Hero MotoCorp reported total sales of 4.5 lakh in July, as against 4.5 lakh in the year-ago period. Its motorcycle sales slipped 0.7 percent on year to 4.2 lakh, according to a filing.

TVS Motor Company clocked strong sales last month. Its total sales increased 13 percent on a year-on-year basis to 3.1 lakh vehicles, with motorcycle sales rising eight percent, according to a filing.

The company's management exuded confidence of improving its supplies with improvement in the semiconductor situation during the month.

Eicher Motors reported a 26 percent year-on-year jump in Royal Enfield sales to 55,555 vehicles in July.

Bajaj Auto reported total sales of 3.54 lakh units in July, down 4.1 percent compared with the corresponding period a year ago. Nomura had estimated the company's total sales for the month at 4 lakh units.

Total exports saw a fall of 15 percent on year to 1.71 lakh vehicles, according to a regulatory filing. Its domestic sales, however, increased to 1.83 lakh units last month from 1.67 lakh in the year-ago period.

Three-wheeler exports plunged 23 percent on a year-on-year basis thanks to Egypt's move to ban three-wheelers, according to the filing.

Eicher's commercial vehicle sales increased 40.1 percent to 5,982 vehicles on a low base.

Ashok Leyland reported total sales of 13,625 vehicles, up 58 percent but less than Nomura's estimate of 14,400 vehicles.

Two- and three-wheeler segments and farm equipment together serve as a proxy for demand in the rural economy.

Escorts reported total tractor sales of 5,360 units in July 2022, a fall of 18.3 percent compared with the year-ago period. The tractor maker's domestic sales fell 22.3 percent to 4,704 vehicles.

Mahindra & Mahindra's tractor sales fell 14 percent to 23,307 vehicles.

VST Tillers — a manufacturer of agricultural multipurpose power tillers and tractors — reported total sales of 4,249 units last month, down 3.4 percent compared with the year-ago period.