Maruti and HM registered a negative growth even during the first ten months of the current fiscal as their sales went down by 6.3 per cent and 15.1 per cent respectively during the period as compared to the period April-January last year.

Despite negative sales of 19 per cent in case of multi-utility vehicles and 17 per cent in commercial vehicles in April-January this year as compared to last year's figures, auto industry grew by five per cent due to a 10 per cent growth recorded by the two-wheeler segment.

Maruti could manage to sell only 26,413 cars in January and 2,63,581 units in April-January this fiscal as compared to 32,762 and 2,81,697 units respectively sold last year, according to Association of Indian AutomobileManufacturers (AIAM).

Similarly Hindustan Motors sold 1,468 units in January and 15,795 units in the first ten months of the current fiscal as against 1,814 units sold in January 1998 and 18,621 vehicles sold in April-January last year.

All passenger car manufacturers together could sell 33,647 vehicles in January and 3,25,564 units in April-January this fiscal as compared to 37,446 units and 343,363 units respectively sold last year. Worst affected was the multi-utility vehicles segment as sales went down sharply to 88,599 vehicles in the first ten months of the current fiscal as against 109,314 vehicles sold in the same period last year.

Only two-wheeler segment recorded a positive growth during April-January 1998-99 with total units sold during the period rising to 2,757,900 numbers as compared to 2,509,439 units sold last year.

Three-wheelers segment also suffered due to recessionary trends and sales dipped by 13 per cent to 170,165 vehicles in first ten months of the fiscal 1998-99 from 196,202units sold in the corresponding period last year.

Sluggish market conditions also affected the export performance of the auto sector as exports were down by 18 per cent in April-January this year as compared to last year.

The poor export performance was due to a 21 per cent fall in export of commercial vehicles, 19 per cent in cars and 23 per cent in two-wheelers. However, exports of multi-utility vehicles and three-wheelers grew by 11 per cent and 8 per cent respectively during the period.