Shares of two-wheeler giant Bajaj Auto fell sharply on Monday, November 4, 2024, after the company reported a significant decline in domestic sales for the month of October 2024.
To be sure, the Pune-headquartered automotive manufacturing company’s domestic sales declined by 8% year-over-year, with 303,831 units sold compared to 329,618 units in October 2023.
The decline in sales weighed heavily on investor sentiment as the stock was down by 4.54% at Rs 9,429.80 per share in mid-morning trade, underperforming the broader BSE Sensex, which was also down 1.37%. The market capitalisation of Bajaj Auto stood at Rs 2.63 lakh crore, according to BSE. It is one of the companies under the BSE 100 category.
Despite the domestic slowdown, Bajaj Auto’s overall sales rose by 1.7% to 479,707 units on the back of strong growth and a modest gain in two-wheeler (2W) and three-wheeler (3W) segments.
In October 2024, two-wheeler sales edged up 2% annually to 414,372 units, while three-wheeler sales rose 4% to 65,355 units. Notably, exports surged 24% year-over-year, reaching 175,876 units in October from 141,570 in the same period last year. Year-to-date, Bajaj Auto has seen total sales growth of 10%, reaching 2.8 million units.
Meanwhile, Bajaj Auto, which was founded in 1954, also reported a 31% year-over-year drop in consolidated profit after tax, which fell to Rs 1,385 crore from Rs 2,020 crore in Q2FY24, even though revenue from operations grew by 22% to Rs 13,247 crore.
The company also achieved a milestone in October 2024 as it sold a record 30,656 Chetak scooters—an impressive 211% increase from last year’s sales of 9,070 units in the same month. With this, October marked the highest monthly retail sales for the Chetak electric scooter in the company’s history.
From January to October 2024, total Chetak sales reached 148,557 units, compared to just 49,675 units during the same period last year. The company’s market share in October 2024 also increased to 20% from 6.46% in October 2023.
