Maruti Suzuki in an exchange filing said that its August production was down 7.9 percent at 1.14 lakh units against 1.24 lakh units (YoY). Production volume of August was affected due to electronic components shortage, it said.

The stock was trading at Rs 6,831.35, down Rs 45.15, or 0.66 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 6,856.30 and an intraday low of Ra 6,801.55.

Himanshu Gupta, VP- Research at Globe Capital has buy call on the stock with target of Rs 7150 per share. “After a prolonged correction, this stock is finally looking poised for giving sharp upside move in the short term. After a good rally, the stock has been consolidating within a small triangular pattern for the past few days, while short-covering activity was clearly visible on the derivatives side during the same period,” he said.

“Besides, we expect auto stocks to do a catch-up rally and Maruti looks posed to lead from the front,” he added.

The company decided to hike prices for select models with effect from September 6. In continuation to its communication on August 30, 2021, with effect from September 6, 2021, the company announced a price change for select models owing to an increase in various inputs costs, India’s largest carmaker said.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest carmaker will see 60 percent cut in production in September due to a shortage in supply of semiconductors. This is the second consecutive monthly cut seen by the company due to the chip shortage.

However, the carmaker has not specified the rate of these hikes to be implemented next month. Maruti Suzuki blames rising input costs, or the cost incurred by the carmaker to produce each vehicle, as the reason behind its decision.

The statement issued by Maruti Suzuki in a regulatory filing today says: “This is to inform you that over the past year the cost of the company’s vehicles continues to be adversely impacted due to an increase in various input costs. Hence, it has become imperative for the Company to pass on some impact of the above additional cost to customers through a price rise.”

This will be the second set of price hikes for Maruti cars this year. The last time the carmaker undertook a mass price hike was back in April. Maruti said, “The price rise has been planned in quarter 2 and the increase shall vary for different models,” without clarifying which models will be affected by this decision.

Maruti Suzuki currently offers 14 models across the country. Only five of these models are sold through its premium retail outlet – the Nexa showrooms.

The price hike, to be effective from July, will be the third this year for Maruti Suzuki. Before April, when Maruti was forced to increase car prices due to similar reasons, the carmaker had implemented another hike in January. Back then, the prices of Maruti cars were hiked by up to ₹34,000.

Maruti Suzuki continues to be the largest carmaker in India despite the Covid-19 pandemic and supply issues that have handicapped most manufacturers across the country. Last month, Maruti sold 32,903 units of passenger vehicles, which was a rise of more than 140 per cent compared to May last year, when the carmaker sold 13,702 units.

Yet, the sales figures in May, which was largely affected by lockdown restrictions in several states across the country, was far less than what it does usually. In April this year, before the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic put a halt on business, Maruti had sold 1,35,879 units, more than one lakh units compared to last month. Maruti hopes that things will pick up from July, and some semblance of normalcy will return in terms of sales figures.