Ashok Leyland

The stock rose after its Q2 numbers and that defied its poor performance for Q2Fy13 wherein, it posted a 8% fall in its net profit at Rs.142 crore. Total income was up 6% at Rs.3296 crore. The fall in net profit is attributed to a 15% rise in depreciation and 57% jump in interest costs at Rs.104 crore, due to higher working capital needs. The company has six manufacturing plants — main plant at Ennore, Tamil Nadu], another two plants at Hosur in Karnataka, a  new plant at Uttarakhand, assembly plants at Alwar in Rajasthan and Bhandara in Maharashtra.

The commercial vehicles segment, in H1FY13 has shown a slump of 13% in volume growth due to slack demand. Its overall market share in first half rose 3% to now stand at 26%. Its LCV, Dost did well and now currently has a market share of 19%. Till end of 30th Sept 2012, in the current fiscal, the company has invested Rs.360 crore. But its performance in October was also not too enthusing with CV sales, including Dost had dipped 13%. In fact it sold 3,033 units of Dost, compared to 577 units last October. But overall sales (including Dost) grew 28% to 7,997 units. Looking ahead, the company is expected to maintain its margins at 9 to 10% on the back of pricing flexibility, fiscal benefits from the Uttarakhand plant and efficient cost controls.