New Delhi, Mar 1 (IANS): Passenger car major Maruti Suzuki Thursday reported an increase of 6.5 percent in its monthly sales for February at 118,949 units from 111,645 units in the like period of 2011.

Domestic sales, which grew at a snail's pace in January at 0.6 percent, grew to 6 percent in February at 107,653 units from 101,543 units in the corresponding month of last year.

The modest increase should come as a relief to the company, which has seen successive interest rate hikes and rising petrol prices denting sales for some time now. Also, the inability of Maruti to meet increased demand for diesel vehicles has led to the company registering lower sales.

The automobile manufacture's exports in the month under review grew by 11.8 percent. The company shipped out 11,296 units from 10,102 units in February, 2011.

Sales of the entry-level compact car segment, which includes brands like Maruti 800, Alto, A-Star and Wagon-R, dropped by 8.2 percent in February to 49,104 units from 53,515 units.

The medium compact segment, which has best selling models like Swift, Estilo and Ritz, saw a 31.1 percent rise in sales in the month under review at 27,899 units from 21,287 units in February, 2011.

Sales of cars such as Dzire grew by 58.8 percent at 15,068, while the SX4 in the sedan segment reported a 42.5 percent drop in sales at 2,033 units.

In terms of consolidated sales for the fiscal, the company reported a drop of 12.3 percent at 1,007,743 from 1,149,053 units in the like period of 2010-11.