Maruti Suzuki India, the largest passenger cars maker in India, reported on Tuesday a better-than-expected growth of 35.88% for third quarter earnings.
 
It earned a profit of Rs 6.81 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2013, compared with Rs 5.01 billion, a year ago.

Analysts, on average, expected Maruti to report a profit of Rs 6.36 billion, on sales of Rs 109 billion.

The company registered net sales of Rs 1,089.38 billion during the quarter, a fall of 2.74% over the same period last year.

The company sold a total of 288,151 vehicles in Q3 a drop of 4.4% over same period last fiscal. Export in Q3 of current fiscal were 19,966 units, a drop of 38.6% over Q3 previous year. Sales remained under stress during the period, in both domestic and export markets.

Shares of the company declined Rs 76.55, or 4.32%, to trade at Rs 1,622 (Tuesday)