Mahindra & Mahindra on Saturday posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 380.19 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2019, down by 72.76 per cent from Rs 1395.96 crore of the corresponding quarter of last year.

The financials including numbers of its subsidiary, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Ltd. The results of Q3 F2020 includes a net loss on account of exceptional and one-off items of Rs 554 crores as compared to a net gain on account of exceptional and one-off items of Rs 519 crores in Q3 F2019, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The total revenue from operations for the quarter under review stood at Rs 12120.28 crore, down by 5.9 per cent from the year-ago period’s Rs 12892.50 crore.

It sold 1,23,353 vehicles in the third quarter of this financial year, down by 8 per cent from the year-ago period’s 1,33,508 units. Tractor sales clocked 81,435 units in the third quarter, down by 6 per cent from the year-ago period’s 87,036 units. Exports dipped by 22 per cent to 9,633 units from the year-ago period’s 12,363 units.

In the third quarter of this financial year, both the Indian auto and tractor industry has shown some signs of trend reversal and has seen moderation in the double digit de-growth seen in the first and second quarters, M&M said.

For Q3 FY2020, the Indian auto industry (excluding two wheelers) posted a decline of 3.0%, as against declines of 15.4% and 26.6% in Q1 FY2020 and Q2 FY2020 respectively, it added. A growth of 27.9% in the UV industry in Q3 FY2020 enabled the passenger vehicle (PV) industry to report a flat performance with a marginal decline of 0.6% as compared to Q3 FY2019.

“Good monsoons, the festive season demand, improved liquidity conditions, new launches, especially in the utility vehicle (UV) segment and special schemes offered by OEMs for the auto industry were the key reasons for this moderation in degrowth,” it noted.

The unseasonal rains in the month of October 2019 did cause some damage to the kharif crop, but the sentiment in the agri and rural economy is fairly upbeat with good sowing of rabi crops supported by very good water reservoir levels and government announcement for thrust on infra projects, it said.

The commercial vehicles (CV) industry continues to be in pain and posted a reduction of 17.3% and the heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) goods industry has reduced 56.4% in Q3 FY2020, it said.

On the company’s outlook, it said that the economic activity weakened further in the last few months and the momentum remained subdued.

Going forward, the supportive and coordinated interplay of monetary and fiscal policy will be of paramount importance in revival of growth, it said.

“There are tentative signs that manufacturing activity and global trade are bottoming out. Besides, a broad-based shift toward accommodative monetary policy, US-China trade deal, and diminished uncertainties around Brexit, have boosted market sentiment,” the company said.