Passenger car and M&HCV sales recorded an impressive 47 per cent growth during September even as Maruti and Bajaj continued to lose marketshare to competition. "The auto sector is the bellwether industry for the industrial economy," said Ketan Desai, head of research at Nucleus Securities.

Interestingly, despite recovery in the passenger car market, US car makers like Ford and General Motors suffered negative growth in sales. "If you are looking at the commercial vehicle sales, the growth is coming on the back of an economic recovery," said Sangeeta Purushottam, head ofresearch at SG Securities. The figures showed sales of medium and HCV accounted for most of the growth, while LCV sales increased only marginally. Purushottam said it was a normal pattern in the early stages of economic recovery for there to be an initial surge in M&HCV sales, which would be followed later by LCVs.

Manishi Roychaudhary of ICICI Securities said growth in infrastructure sectors was pushing demand for heavy and medium commercial vehicles. Analysts said the introduction of a range of new small car models from end-1998 had also contributed to the higher sales. Hyundai, Daewoo and Telco have all put sleek new models on India's roads.

Maruti and Bajaj Auto failed to keep pace with the growth rates and ended the month with reduced marketshare. Maruti lost its market share to Hyundai's Santro, Daewoo's Matiz and Indica but maintained its number one position cornering 66.73% of the market in April-September. The company had a market share of 68.7% in April-July. Daewoo sales grew by 254 per centduring April-September to 14,668 vehicles, including Matiz, Cielo and Nubira from 4,144 cars sold in the same period of last year. Hyundai, which launched Santro late last year, sold 31,849 vehicles during the first half of current fiscal.