Bajaj Auto skids on poor sales

Bajaj Auto is down in the red today, currently down 2% at Rs.2342, with an intra day low of Rs.2325.

The stock is down and could continue to see more pressure as the monthly sales number for January shows that its trend of falling sales persists. Its January sales fell 9% (YoY) at 2.88 lakh units while volumes of its core motorcycles business fell 12% (YoY) v/s a 6% drop in December.

The market is disappointed that the company is not able to arrest the falling sales, letting go of precious market share. Falling demand, hike in excise duty is blamed for falling domestic sales while exports are sluggish because its biggest market, Nigeria is going through a lot of economic turmoil due to falling crude oil prices. Even in Sri Lanka, the ongoing elections led to a virtual freeze on sales; the only consolation is that sales in Mexico and Argentina did better.