Commodity Online
MUMBAI: Tata Motors (BOM 500570) remained clung to the rising markets, as the manufacturer of the world’s cheapest car has received 2.03 lakh bookings for its small car, Nano. Stock surged over 90% since past one quarter.

The bookings for Nano have been more than double the initial sales plan for the company. Tata Motors had made an announcement after the market hours on Monday.

Company stocks traded firm on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) with a gain of 6% at Rs.272.60. The stock has been on the rise on the bourses since its monthly lows of Rs.160 on 25th March 09. Tata Motors stocks rose by close to 27% over past one month, while the price has appreciated by over 90% over past one quarter.

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The company is said to have raised about Rs.2500 crore from customer bookings for its Nano car. The deliveries for the same would start from July 2009. The company sold 610,000 booking forms and received 2.03 lakh fully-paid orders during the initial bookings from 9 April 2009 to 25 April 2009.

The price starts from Rs.1,12,735 ex-showroom. Tata Motors will choose the first 1 lakh customers for the Nano by a lottery method.

Tata Motors wants to raise the money to pay off a US$ 3-billion loan it had taken from a syndicate of banks to buy luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover. The company has already repaid US$ 1 billion of the bridge loan to the banks and has to repay the remainder by June 2009. Tata Motors is reported to be in talks with banks to refinance the remaining US$ 2 billion.

The total vehicle sales for the Tata Motors have fallen by 1.7% to 37,518 units in April 2009 over April 2008. Domestic sales rose 1.2% to 36,257 units, while commercial sales rose 8.8% to 22,847 units. Passenger vehicles sales, however, declined 4.1% to 14,615 units and exports fell 45% to 1,261 in April 2009 over April 2008.

The company had reported a net loss of Rs.263.26 crore in Q3 December 2008 as compared to net profit of Rs.499.05 in Q3 December 2007. Net sales fell 34.4% to Rs. 4758.62 crore in Q3 December 2008 over Q3 December 2007.