Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has reported a 34% fall in quarterly net profit as a large depreciation charge offset higher sales, sending its share price down.
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Maruti said net profit fell to 2.98 billion rupees (USD75m) in the fiscal fourth quarter to end-March from 4.49 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.
Net sales rose to 47.63 billion rupees from 44.3 billion.
That lagged a forecast of net profit of 4.61 billion on sales of 47.76 billion in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
Maruti said it had adopted shorter depreciation cycles for its equipment and tooling assets. It made an additional provision of 2.1 billion rupees for depreciation for 2007/08, which hit its quarterly profit.
It also suffered a net loss of 505 million rupees in the quarter after it marked-to-market its derivative positions.
Maruti, whose full-year profit rose 11% to 17.31 billion rupees, said operating margin in the quarter fell to 10% from 12.5% a year earlier, hit by depreciation and the high cost of raw materials.
