Kotak Equities downgrades Maruti Suzuki to 'sell' from 'reduce'

Kotak Institutional Equities has downgraded Maruti Suzuki India Ltd to "sell" from "reduce," saying the outlook for the company will be more challenging than currently priced by the stock.

Kotak Institutional Equities has downgraded Maruti Suzuki India Ltd to "sell" from "reduce," saying the outlook for the company will be more challenging than currently priced by the stock.

Kotak says that Maruti Suzuki shares are factoring in expectations for a "sharp recovery" in volumes in fiscal year 2015 but says he year could instead be challenging because of "high inflation nd weak job market conditions."

"We are also concerned on low capacity utilization levels of the industry and strong competitor launches, which will restrict perating margin improvement," said a representative.

Kotak is only one of five brokerages out of 54 tracked by Thomson Reuters to rate Maruti Suzuki at "reduce", underweight", or "sell."

Maruti shares are up 19.7% so far this year, after hitting a record high on Dec 20.