Maruti Suzuki sales up 5 per cent in January

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The country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki has made a turnaround in monthly sales after seven consecutive months of drop, with the company reporting 5.18 per cent rise in sales to 1,15,433 units for January.

The company had sold 1,09,743 units in the same month last year, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) said in a statement.

MSI's sales had declined for the seventh consecutive month in December 2011 with the firm reporting 7.1 per cent fall at 92,161 units.

In January this year, the national capital-based company sold 1,01,047 units in the domestic market against 1,00,422 units in January, 2011.

In a similar fashion, MSI's exports increased by 54.34 per cent to 14,386 units in January, from 9,321 units in the year-ago period, the company added.

Total passenger car sales in the domestic market went up by 2.42 per cent to 88,377 units last month from 86,285 units in the same month of 2011, it added.

However, sales of the company's mini-segment cars, including the M800, A-Star, Alto and WagonR, fell by 2.38 per cent to 52,036 units from 53,304 units in January, 2011.

In the compact segment (comprising the Estilo, Swift and Ritz models), MSI witnessed a 22.35 per cent up in sales to 25,756 units from 21,051 units in the same month a year ago.

Sales of MSI's DZiRE model, however, decreased by 11.61 per cent to 8,637 units from 9,771 units in the corresponding period a year ago.

In addition, MSI's mid-sized sedan SX4's sales slipped by 9.77 per cent to 1,939 units from 2,149 units in the year-ago month. Luxury sedan Kizashi witnessed sales of 9 units.