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The commercial vehicle (CV) segment took a hit for a couple of months to absorb pre-buying due to new emission norms, effective October 1, 2010. The domestic truck segment picked up momentum since December 2010 on strong economic growth. Further, increased production at Ashok Leyland's Uttarakhand facility is expected to boost margins.

1) Management targets 95k units during FY11 while we estimate volume of 89k units. We expect the company to surpass our estimates by 4-5%. In FY12, we expect the company to record volume growth of 10% to 97k units with an upward bias.

Tata Motors Ltd.

Tata Steel’s consol revenues at Rs290.9bn improved on account of higher realisations (up 19% YoY) and improved product mix, despite 7% YoY decline in volumes. Consequently EBITDA grew by 16% YoY to Rs34bn and blended EBITDA/t was at USD122 vs. USD112 in Q3FY10. Adjusted PAT was up by 139% at Rs100bn.

Tata Steel India (TSI): EBITDA/t at USD387 was up 15% YoY and 10% QoQ due to better realisations (14% YoY growth), volume growth (3% YoY), improved product mix, and cost efficiencies.

Indian market traded in a range bound session closed flat. Metals and Infrastructure traded well. The Sensex closed at 18300, up 27 points from its previous close, and Nifty closed at 5481, no change. The CNX Midcap index was up 0.1% and the BSE Smallcap index was up 1%. The market breadth was positive with advances at 797 against declines of 497 on the NSE. The top Nifty gainers were JP Associates, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Wipro and prime losers included HDFC, IDFC, RCom and HCL Tech. The FIIs were net sellers with investment worth Rs 230.06Cr (prov. cash market fig)

Aluminium yesterday traded with the positive node and settled 0.35% up

Natural gas yesterday traded with the negative node and settled -0.39% down at 180.