Maruti Suzuki stock falls amid recall of 5,900 Super Carry vehicles

The Maruti Suzuki stock fell in early trade today after the country's largest carmaker said it was recalling 5,900 units of its light commercial vehicle Super Carry to replace faulty fuel filter. The stock fell up to 1.43% to 7,406 level compared to the previous close of 7,513.70 on BSE in trade today.

The large cap stock has been falling for the last four days and lost 5.76% during the period.

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35 of 47 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or 'outperform', 9 "hold", one "underperform" and two "sell", according to analysts' recommendations tracked by Reuters.

The stock has lost 22.78% during the last one year and 23.36% since the beginning of this year. The company will inspect a possible defect in fuel filter of 5,900 Super Carry vehicles manufactured between April 26, 2018, and August 1, 2018, the firm said.

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The recall also includes vehicles in which fuel filter has been replaced in field during this period, it added.

Maruti dealers will start contacting owners of the suspected vehicles Wednesday onwards to inspect and replace faulty part free of cost, it said.

Recall campaigns are undertaken globally to rectify faults that may potential be safety defects.

Earlier in October, MSI had announced recall of 640 units of Super Carry to fix a possible defect in the fuel pump supply. The recall covered Super Carry units manufactured between January 20 and July 14, 2018.

MSI rolls out Super Carry from its Gurugram facility. The vehicle comes equipped with a 793-cc diesel engine.

The current fiscal 2018 has been a challenging one for the country's largest carmaker.

After enduring its worst festive season in nearly five years, the firm last week said it would be unrealistic to expect a double digit growth in fiscal year (FY) 2018/19, something it had targeted at the start of the year in April.

The company that accounts for one of every two passenger vehicles sold in the country had started the year with a bang posting nearly 26 per cent growth in sales in the domestic market in the first quarter (April-June 2018) but sales declined by 0.44 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) as a slowdown gripped the domestic automobile industry.

A tepid festive season that spanned over two months from October to November due to a variety of factors like liquidity crunch, increase in cost of insurance, high fuel and interest rates, left the company staring at a protracted slowdown.

Meanwhile, the Sensex and Nifty were trading lower today amid weak Asian markets unnerved by US political developments including a US federal government shutdown and President Donald Trump's hostile stance towards the Federal Reserve chairman.

While the Sensex fell 248 points to 35,221, Nifty was down 66 points to 10,596.

Edited by Aseem Thapliyal