Tata Motors in fifth gear, up 6% on JLR sales numbers

NEW DELHI: Shares of Tata Motors climbed over 6 per cent in Thursday's trade after the company said its luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) clocked 3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in sales at 47,634 units in September compared with a record September 2014 performance amid prevailing worries over slowing Chinese demand.

The stock climbed 5.94 per cent to hit a day's high of Rs 373.25. The company's British subsidiary sold 349,412 units in the first nine months of 2015.

JLR, the company said, has clocked 21 per cent growth in Europe, 18 per cent in North America and 15 per cent in the UK during the nine-month period. Meanwhile, in China sales are down 29 per cent year-to-date, it said.

"Sales in the UK, Europe and North America have shown impressive growth year-to-date and despite a challenging macro-economic environment, particularly in China, customer demand for both our Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles remains encouraging," said Andy Goss, director for sales operations at Jaguar Land Rover Group.

Jaguar sales grew 22 per cent to 10,394 vehicles for September, while Land Rover retailed 37,240 units, down 1 per cent YoY.

The automaker said lower sales in China in the September quarter (down 32 per cent YoY) reflected the accelerated slowing of economic conditions in the country, together with planned new model transitions. The company said it was still assessing the losses it would incur due to the recent Tianjin port blast, where 5,800 of its vehicles had been stored at the time of the explosion.

"Under these circumstances, there is likely to be a one-time exceptional charge in Q2 of FY16 before any potential recovery in the subsequent quarters," the company said in a note.