BENGALURU (Reuters) -Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s top carmaker by sales, reported a bigger-than-expected jump in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, buoyed by strong demand for its sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
The company’s profit after tax for the three months to Dec.
31 rose 33% to 31.3 billion rupees ($377 million).
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 29.25 billion rupees, per LSEG data.
Indian consumers generally make big-ticket purchases during the festive season, which lasted for a large part for the third quarter last year.
Increased sales of more expensive SUVs, such as ‘Grand Vitara’ and ‘Brezza’, helped boost Maruti’s total sales volumes by 7.6% to 501,000 units, per its monthly sales data.
Sales of small cars, including ‘Alto’ and ‘Baleno’, were, however, down throughout the year and extended into the December-quarter as high inflation curbed rural spending, the segment’s largest consumer demographic.
A moderation in December small car wholesales, which includes sales to dealerships, also partly contributed to the dip in the segment.
The ‘Swift’ hatchback-maker’s revenue from sales rose 14.4% to 318.6 billion rupees.
($1 = 83.0331 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Varun Vyas in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
