Shares of Tata Motors Ltd dropped as much as 4.6 per cent to Rs 420.15 as the company has warned of challenges ahead for its flagship British unit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).

After opening strong at Rs 440.85 against the previous close of Rs 440.30, the scrip touched an intraday high of Rs 440.85 and a low of Rs 420.15. In terms of equity volume, 24.15 lakh shares were traded on the BSE. The stock ended down by 4.01 per cent at Rs 422.65.

JLR expects sales in the UK and United States to soften because of competition but is confident of growth in China, the company said after announcing a three-fold jump in profit.

“After a challenging first quarter, Tata Motors has demonstrated impressive results with month-on-month growth in sales and market share, enabled by a slew of new product launches and customer-centric initiatives.

“With our turnaround plan in full action, we are seeing encouraging results and we will continue to drive sustainable profitable growth to meet our future aspirations,” Guenter Butschek, MD and CEO, said.

“Q2 results were materially better than our and consensus forecasts. Now need overall volume growth to recover (+6.5 pct YTD) for the next leg of performance,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note.

Risks remain around new model failures and a sharp deceleration in pricing, according to Deutsche Bank. It has kept “buy” rating and a price target of Rs 490.

Deutsche Bank lowers JLR volume forecasts by 2 per cent to factor lower-than-expected growth in 1HFY18.

Twenty-four of 38 brokerages have rated the stock as “buy” or higher, 10 “hold” and 4 “sell” or lower; their median price target is Rs 482.50, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

The stock was down 6.8 per cent this year as of Thursday's close.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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