In an interview with ET Now, Prayesh Jain, Research Analyst, IIFL India, shares his views on markets. Excerpts:

ET Now: Just going to walk you through Maruti June sales, the domestic sales are up by about 1.6% year on year and 1.03 lakh units exports have come in robust and the total sales stand at 1.15 lakh units, how would you read into these numbers given that it was pretty solid even in the last month?

Prayesh Jain: Sales are a tad lower than what we were expecting. We expected the overall volume growth to be on the order of around 3%. So, it was slight lower than our estimates but we are quite bullish on Maruti given the kind of new launches the company would be giving in the next 18 months.

ET Now: The news about Suzuki announcing five-year roadmap that will see as many as 20 new launches resulting in 14% hike in their sales, how big an impact do you think that would have going forward and does Maruti stand tall against its peers?

Prayesh Jain: In terms of Suzuki announcing 20 new launches, whether it is specific to Indian markets will have to be seen because new launches globally for Suzuki is a different ball game and then they come to India is a different time and altogether. We feel the Maruti is better placed than peers given the kind of launches they have been doing. Plus the kind of reach they have in terms of their dealerships and service outlets throughout the country and even its export have been picking up of late. In terms of currency movement too the company gains on margin front. In that sense, the overall outlook on Maruti is a much better.

ET Now: They have been pretty upbeat on India in the commentary yesterday saying that India will contribute about 58% which is close to 2 million of the annual sales volumes by 2020 and they expect the passenger vehicle market in India to grow to 5 million units in the next five years, clearly the thrust on making Indian operations as a key production base is going to bode well for Maruti in the long haul?

Prayesh Jain: Definitely! Maruti in terms of exports is still very small vis-a-vis some of its peers like Hyundai or Nissan which send huge volumes out of India and still Maruti has just 10% of its volume going in terms of export market. So, there is a large potential for that.

Source:- economictimes.indiatimes.com