Auto stocks advance post encouraging July sales numbers; pare gains later

Maruti on Saturday announced it had sold 108,000 units in July, 88.2 per cent more than June 2020

Shares of auto and auto ancillary companies traded with decent gains on Monday after the automakers reported encouraging sales numbers for July. The S&P BSE Auto index rallied as much as 2.6 per cent to 16,923.15 levels against Friday's close of 16,489.64 during the day.

The index, however, erased its gains later in the day and at 10:47 am, it was trading flat at 16,512.20, up just 0.14 per cent.  In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was ruling 418 points or over 1 per cent lower at 37,188.

Among individual stocks, Tata Motors was trading nearly 4 per cent