M&M up by 7 %

Mahindra is the world's fourth largest tractor maker in the world. It was formed in 1945 to make Chrysler Jeeps in India. Now Mahindra has a joint venture with China's Jiangling Motors and is looking for lucrative acquisitions in Europe after bid for Romanaia's Tractorul Brasov failed. It also had a $80 million joint venture with Navistar Inc. International Truck and Engine Corp. to make 50,000 medium and heavy weight trucks. M&M believes that it could be the largest tractor company in the world in five years. They are also in a tieup with France's Renault to make Logan sedans form next year.

Mahindra sold 60,495 vehicles and tractors in April-June (15% rise). The passenger vehicle market in india is forecast to nearly double to 2 million units by 2010. The demand for trucks in India is $5 billion. Material costs are going up, but we have created a margin of safety through cost management and higher productivity and we look forward to the rest of the year with confidence. Mahindra shares are valued at $4.5 billion and fell nearly 1 % compared to 11 % drop on the auto sector and 6 % decline in the sensex.

The Net sales of the company rose vy 23 % to Rs. 22.36 billion from 18.12 billion a year earlier. The operating margins of the company rose to 12.1 % form 10.65% a year earlier. The shares closed on BSE at Rs. 563.10 up by 6.6%. When the Sensex climbed by nearly 200 points. The numbers of the company is really impressive but they have to sustain the high margins when input prices goes even higher. Higher crude oil prices and high interest rates could futher dampen the demand.