Stock market analysts have suggested investors to sell Maruti stock below Rs 738 with a stop Loss of Rs 750 to achieve a target that lies between Rs 724-Rs 720.

The investors are advised to sell the stock in order to avoid loss, as there are full chances of a downward trend in this stock.

If the stock fell below Rs 735, it may see more weakness.

After selling the stock in today’s session, the interested investors can enter the stock again, but only on declines.

The recent decline follows a steep fall of 33.64% in the company’s (Maruti Suzuki India) earnings for the quarter ended March 2008.

Higher input cost and inability to pass on rising cost to consumers along with substantial rise in depreciation cost pushed profit of the company lower during the quarter.

During the three months, the company’s profit declined to Rs 2,976.80 million from Rs 4,485.6 million in the same quarter previous year. The analyst’ polled by Bloomberg had forecasted earnings of Rs 4,707.55 million for the quarter.

The company posted earnings of Rs 10.30 per share during the quarter, registering 33.68% rejection over previous year period. The analysts` had estimated earnings of Rs 16.20 a share.

Net sales during the quarter ended March 31, surged 7.52% to Rs 47,629.10 million, whereas the total income for the quarter climbed 9.39% to Rs 50,699.40 million, when compared with the prior year period.

During the quarter the company announced a fall in operating margin by 287.37 basis points to 9.57% on higher input cost. On the other hand, there has been increase of 3.66% in interest charge to Rs 161.30 million and rise of 4.33 times in depreciation charge to Rs 3,111.20 million over previous year period.

For the financial year 2008, Maruti posted a 12.69% decline in net profit over fiscal 2007 to Rs 17,898.90 million as against Rs 19,339.36 million estimated by analysts. Consolidated total income in the year rose 23.44% over last year to Rs 191,213.90 million.

The board of directors has recommended a final dividend of 100% aggregating Rs 1,444.6 million i.e. Rs 5 a shares of nominal value Rs 5 a share for the financial year 2007-08.