Tata Motors shares were among the top three Sensex gainers on Monday (May 8) morning trade, with gains of about 1.29 percent (at Rs. 425) on reports that the company plans to grow its commercial vehicle (CV) exports by 15 percent this financial year. The other two gainers were ICICI Bank and ONGC.
The BSE Sensex was up about 100 points, at around 12 noon.
"We expect our exports to grow 15 per cent this year over last year when we grew over 11 per cent and for the first time crossed the 60,000-mark. This will be partly because we expect to ship at least 8,000 of the banned 15,000 BS-III trucks and buses in the Saarc markets, primarily Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where we already have good presence, and also in the West Asian and African markets," Ravi Pisharody, executive director for commercial vehicles unit, told news agency PTI.
The company also hopes to grow its domestic CV volume sales by 10-15 percent.
In 2016-17, Tata Motors had exported 61,200 units, 11 percent more than overseas shipments in 2015-16.
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The sale of unsold, BS-III commercial vehicles in India in view of the Supreme Court's order is being overcome by exporting these units to neighbouring countries.
The company's share of the domestic bus market rose seven percent during the preceding fiscal and it has a share of about 40 percent. The other big player in India's CV segment of the automobile industry is Chennai-based Ashok Leyland.
ICICI Bank was trading with gains of 2.70 percent at Rs 306.60 after hitting a fresh 52-week high of Rs. 308.30. In the past five trading sessions, the stock has rallied from Rs. 275 on May 3 (closing price), translating into a gain of 12 percent, on the back of its upbeat Q4 results declared after trading hours on May 3. The bank also rewarded shareholders with a bonus issue of 1:10 (one bonus share for every share held).
Brokerage Motilal Oswal Securities has a target price of Rs. 365 for ICICI Bank while Centrum Broking's target is Rs. 320.
