Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.(MSIL) has reported a sharp increase in net profit and sales for the September quarter (Q2) on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. Net profit is up 60 percent YoY at Rs 2,398 crore from Rs 1,497 crore earlier while sales grew 29 percent to Rs 20,296.80 crore in comparison to Rs 15,699.7 crore in the year-ago period, according to a statement issued by the company.
The car-maker attributed the growth in net profit to an overall improvement in operations. "Higher volumes leading to higher capacity utilisation, lower expenses on sales promotion and marketing and higher non-operating income contributed to increase in profits."
Volume sales rose 18.5 percent YoY at 3.83 lakh units while exports increased 17.9 percent to 35,440 vehicles. Overall, volume sales grew 18.4 percent in Q2 to 4.18 lakh vehicles.
Shares of Maruti Suzuki, however, were trading 0.88 percent lower at Rs 5,820 at around 2 pm on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on Thursday.
Maruti Suzuki seems to be gearing up for a slew of product launches in India next year. While Ignis and the powerful version of the Baleno hatchback, Baleno RS, is expected to join the product line-up in early 2017, the facelifted avatar of S-Cross is also likely to come to the Indian market late next year.
The S-Cross facelift, which was unveiled earlier this year will join the floor of the Nexa premium showrooms of Maruti Suzuki late next year.
While the company's small car Alto continues to retain the top spot in the passenger vehicle segment, new models like the Baleno premium hatchback and the Vitara Brezza compact SUV are also ticking all the right boxes in the market.
According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Maruti Suzuki Baleno, the premium hatchback that made its entry into the market last October, found 54,947 takers in the April-September period this fiscal.
