Maruti opens at 158 on BSE

Mumbai: The shares of Maruti Udyog Ltd (MUL), which were listed on the exchanges yesterday, opened at 158 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and closed at 164, yielding a premium of about 35 per cent to the shareholder. The MUL shares were traded in the A-group category.

About 5.12-crore share were traded on the BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and resulted in a market capitalisation of Rs 5,000 crore. The stock touched a high of Rs 170.25 and a low of Rs 156.10 on the BSE. It, however, closed at Rs 164.05 on the BSE and Rs 164.30 on the NSE.

Says MUL managing director Jagadish Khattar: "Maruti now has a special place in the Indian market. India has only six cars per 1,000 people, half of 12 per 1,000 in the neighbouring Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I have been making a point during our road shows that Maruti has cleared the doubts about manufacturing capabilities of a developing country like India."

Maruti is the country's first stand-alone carmaker to list. Of the 11 automobile companies that manufacture cars in India, only Tata Engineering that makes Indica and Hindustan Motors that makes the Ambassador are listed.