TVS Motors continued to hit the accelerator on Friday after a spurt over the last two days on expectations of upbeat Q3 results.

The scrip of the Chennai-based two-wheeler company rose 2% to Rs 540 on BSE in early trades. It hit a high of Rs 543, earlier. A total of 1,373 TVS Motor shares changed hands on BSE in one hour of trading.

The stock has been on the rise in the last couple of days. It has climbed 7.7% to its current level from Rs 501 on 15 January 2003. From an earlier low of Rs 376.50 on 28 October 2002, the scrip has gained 43.4% to the current Rs 540. One must not forget to mention that the scrip's fortunes have been on the up for over a year now. In fact, it has sky-rocketed 641% from Rs 72.80 on 26 September 2001.

Some domestic mutual funds are believed to be mopping up the stock at its lower levels.

The company is expected to turn out strong Q3 ended 31 December 2002 results following improving sales of its flagship bike Victor, which has been driving the company's performance for some time now. Only last month, TVS Motor Company announced that it had sold 3,00,000 motorcycles of the Victor model in just a little less than 16 months. The company says that it now has a 20% market share of the motorcycles market from 14% in 2001. The company is hoping to take a 24% market share by the end of 2002-03. TVS announces its Q3 results on 27 January 2003.

TVS' total motorcycle sales surged 38% to 56,619 units in December 2002 from 43,220 units last year. Overall sales of the Chennai-based two-wheeler major jumped 21% to 88,682 units in December 2002 from 73,529 units in the same month last year.

For the nine months ended 31 December 2002, the company's sales leaped up 36% to 8,44,941 units as against 6,20,051 units a year earlier. Motorcycle sales zoomed 79% to 5,40,366 units.

For Q2 ended 30 September 2002, TVS Motor reported a 64% growth in turnover to Rs 705 crore (Rs 7.05 billion) over the corresponding previous quarter's turnover of Rs 429 crore (Rs 4.29 billion). Profit after tax increased by 197% to Rs 30.85 crore, from Rs 10.39 crore recorded in the corresponding previous quarter. However, for the half year ended 30 September 2002, the company registered a 59% growth in turnover and a 201% increase in PAT. Turnover increased to Rs 1,341 crore in the half year ended 31 September 2002, from Rs 846 crore (Rs 8.46 billion) in the corresponding previous half-year period. PAT zoomed by 201% to Rs 57.63 crore for the above period.

The company is expected to save nearly Rs 13 crore on royalty payment (company has cut off its relations with Suzuki ) for FY 2002-03. Further, another Rs 96 crore is likely to be saved as a result of various cost-cutting initiatives in 2002-03. However, the entire savings will not be reflected in the bottom line of the company in FY 2002-03, due to the ongoing brand building exercise and the company's policy of passing on cost benefits to customers.