New Delhi, Aug 1 (IANS): The country's leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Thursday reported a 9.6 per cent decline in sales for July, at 137,463 units compared to the same month last year even as exports went up during the month.

The company had sold 152,126 units in July 2023.

Market analysts attribute the decline in sales to a tapering off in pent-up demand that had built up last year.

However, the company’s exports rose by 8 per cent to 23,985 vehicles during the month compared to 22,199 units that were shipped to overseas markets in July 2023.

Maruti Suzuki which controls a 41 per cent share of the domestic market has a large number of entry-level customers for its small cars. Demand from the potential first-time buyers appears to have cooled off.

Maruti Suzuki on Wednesday reported a 46.9 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 3,649.9 crore for the April-June quarter of the current financial year from Rs 2,485.1 crore in the same quarter of 2023-24.

"This was broadly on account of cost reduction efforts, favourable commodity prices, and foreign exchange gains," according to a company statement.

Maruti Suzuki registered net sales of Rs 33,875.3 crore during the quarter as against Rs 30,845.2 in the same period of FY 2023-24. The company sold a total of 521,868 vehicles during the first quarter of 2024-25, higher by 4.8 per cent, compared to the same period of the previous year. The sales in the domestic market during the quarter stood at 451,308 units, up by 3.8 per cent over the corresponding figure of Q1FY24. The export sales were at 70,560 units, a growth of 11.6 per cent over Q1FY24.