The company, a local unit of Japanese auto giant Suzuki Motor Corp, sold 42,842 vehicles in November, up from 39,745 units logged in the corresponding period of 2003, showed sales figures issued by Maruti.

Of the total sales, Maruti exported 1,894 vehicles, registering a sharp fall of 47.5 percent from the corresponding period in the previous year.

"Owing to the large number of holidays on account of festivals, production and despatch of vehicles was affected during the month," said the statement.

"However, consumer demand was high owing to the festival season. As such, retail sales were robust and resulted in reduction in stocks at dealerships," it said.

Maruti, which sells a dozen car models in the domestic market, said its Baleno and Esteem sedans posted a whopping growth of 351.6 percent at 3,546 units as consumers preferred bigger cars.

The company's compact car models -- Alto, Wagon-R, and Zen -- saw sales growth of 46.7 percent at 22,933 units in November, up from 15,632 sold in the same month last year.

Sales of its once hugely popular hatchback Maruti 800, however, dipped 38.9 percent to 8,958 units with the cut-price Alto attracting maximum numbers of buyers in the segment.

In the first eight months of the current fiscal ended Nov 30, Maruti's total sales jumped 18.8 percent to 345,713 units.     

The company's net profit in the July-September quarter jumped an impressive 48 percent to Rs.1.83 billion over the same period in the previous year.

The company's market share in the domestic passenger car market went up to 55 percent in the first half of the current fiscal, up from 54 percent in the same period last year.

--Indo-Asian News Service