Ratan Tata buys 4.25 lakh shares in Tata Motors

Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata has increased his stake in the group company Tata Motors Ltd by 4.25 lakh shares, taking his aggregate holding to 0.05 per cent. Tata bought the shares on 14 June through open market operations on the National Stock Exchange for a total cost of nearly Rs10 crore, at an average price of nearly Rs234 per share, the company disclosed to the exchanges on Friday.

A spokesperson for Tata Sons, the main holding company for the group, told an agency that Tata had bought these shares in his personal capacity.

The announcement came even as Tata Motors gained the most in four months on Friday after its global sales increased more than analysts' expectations. Shares of the company gained Rs12.80, or 5.65 per cent, at Rs239.50 on the NSE, the most since 15 February.

The company posted a 12 per cent year-on-year growth in global sales in May at 96,089 units, led by robust growth at its luxury Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) unit. Deliveries from JLR jumped 35 per cent to 30,094 units in May, exceeding average analysts' estimation of 28,175 in a Bloomberg survey.

Deliveries of Land Rover vehicles rose 42 per cent to 25,752 units, while sales of the Jaguar-brand cars increased three per cent to 4,342, Tata Motors said in a release.

JLR benefited from a demand in China for its Range Rover Evoque sports utility vehicle.

For the year ended 31 March, JLR contributed 63 per cent of revenue at Tata Motors, up from 57 per cent a year earlier.