In July automobile companies posted a large rise in sales. This comes after a 5% fall in sales last month.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki reported a 12.7% increase in its total sales for last month.

The company sold 1,37,116 units during the month under review -- up from 1,21,712 units sold in the same month last year.

The second largest car maker Hyundai Motor reported an overall sales growth of 10.7%, with total sales for the last month at 55,807 units, as against 50,411 units sold in the corresponding month of 2015.

Tata Motors' passenger and commercial vehicle sales including exports edged higher by 7% to 43,160 vehicles. While Mahindra and Mahindra's (M&M) total sales rose by 14%.

Ford India's total sales grew to 17,742 units in July 2016, up from 13,116 units sold in the like month in the previous fiscal.

Eicher Motors logged 31% sales growth, selling 53,378 units in July 2015 from 40,760 units sold in the corresponding month last year.

This comes as good news with festive season just a few months away.

While domestic sales have been positive for most of the automobile companies in India, exports continue to be very poor.

Maruti Suzuki's exports just saw a marginal increase of 0.3% in July with exports amounting to 11,338 units. In fact overall exports during FY2016-17 (April – July 2016) were down by a major 20.2%.

While Hyundai posted a robust 12.9% growth in domestic sales in July, the growth in exports were however lower at just 5%. It sold 14,606 units in July 2016 from 13,908 units in the same month last year.

Tata Motors' sales from exports showed a growth of 6% with 5,371 units in July 2016 as compared to 5,078 vehicles sold in July 2015. The cumulative sales from exports for the fiscal was at 19,187 units, higher by just 3% sold last year.

Ford India's exports however were the only one to post a growth of 21.8% to 10,666 vehicles compared to 8,754 units in July 2015.

Honda Cars India exports too have dropped 212 units in June 2016 from 614 units in the same month last year.

(With inputs from IANS)