Maruti shares rally on proposed price hike

Business

oi-Sunil

By Sunil Fernandes

Published: Thursday, September 26, 2013, 10:17 [IST]

Shares in Maruti Suzuki rallied 1% today, following reports that the company plans to hike prices of cars by Rs 10,000 across models.

The company's shares were last traded at Rs 1404, up 1 per cent over Wednesday's close. Recently, a few other auto makers had effected a hike on various versions of their cars.

"We have been wanting to raise the price for some time as our input costs went up severely, mainly on account of weakening of rupee. However, the market was not conducive. Now it has become inevitable," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek told PTI.

The prices of MSI's vehicles that are manufactured in India start from Rs 2.35 lakh and goes up to Rs 10.21 lakh. These prices are as per the company's official website and are for ex-showroom, Guwahati. MSI had last hiked the prices in January for all its vehicles by up to Rs 20,000 to offset the pressure of adverse currency fluctuation. In the last few months, rupee devalued drastically and hit a life-time low of below 68.85 against the US dollar.

The auto sector has not been performing well in the last few quarters and sales have slumped following a slowdown.

Dealers have turned aggressive ahead of the festive season, though not many are optimistic that there would be a sharp turnaround in fortunes.

Rising interest rates have been a further impediment to sales. The RBI last week hiked the repo rates. These rates are rates at which the RBI lends to banks and any hike in these rates often leads to hike in interest rates.

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