Ashok Leyland speeds up on hopes it may exceed annual sales guidance

Ashok Leyland rose 1.60% to Rs 66.55 at 11:44 IST on reports the company may exceed the annual sales guidance of about 85,000 vehicles.


Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 88.89 points, or 0.51%, to 17,530.33.


On BSE, 5.39 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 11.46 lakh shares in the past one quarter.


The stock hit a high of Rs 67 and a low of Rs 65.50 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 70.35 on 13 May 2010 and a 52-week low of Rs 28.60 on 9 July 2009.


The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 2 July 2010, gaining 2.38% compared with the Sensex's 4.30% rise. It outperformed the market in past one quarter, rising 9.75% as against 1.31% fall in the Sensex.


The large-cap commercial vehicle maker has an equity capital of Rs 133.03 crore. Face value per share is Rs 1.


Commenting on the sales guidance for fiscal year 2011, Ashok Leyland's chief financial officer K Sridharan said the company may hopefully exceed the guidance it gave at the beginning of the year of about 85,000 vehicles.


However, he added that the company would like to wait and watch because it needs to take into account the effect of the changing emission standards coming in October 2010. So at this juncture the company has maintained guidance of about 85,000 vehicles.


Ashok Leyland's total vehicle sales jumped 111.8% to 8,400 units in June 2010 over June 2009. Domestic sales soared 115.61% to 7,499 units, while exports jumped 84.63% to 901 units in June 2010 over June 2009.


Ashok Leyland's net profit galloped 317.7% to Rs 222.66 crore on 141.3% rise in net sales to Rs 2,939.04 crore in Q4 March 2010 over Q4 March 2009