New Delhi, Sep 2 : India's automobile sector reported strong retail sales in festive-heavy August despite the imminent GST arbitrage, a report has said.

"As expected, enquiries have increased across the segments. Discounts remained elevated in the month," HSBC Global Investment Research said in a report.

However, the research firm said that they believe the next two weeks could be slow as customers would now like to wait for the GST cut before making a buying decision.

The sales could come down going into September, the report stated.

"The month of September will also see 15 days of 'shraad' which is considered an inauspicious buying period. CV discounts are largely stable and unlikely to go up in the near future," the report said.

The report suggested that the demand for tractors is expected to remain strong due to good monsoons and reservoir levels.

In the month, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) domestic volume grew by 28 per cent, while for Escorts it grew by 27 per cent year-on-year, respectively.

Electric 4-wheeler penetration increased to 4.5 per cent in August. Tata's market share increased to 40 per cent and M&M to 19 per cent, with MG declining to 28 per cent.

Whereas, electric two-wheeler sales penetration remained at 7.6 per cent with 1.4 lakh units in retail sales. TVS sold 24 thousand units in the month, while Ather increased to 18 thousand units, and Bajaj's sales were at 12 thousand units.

Meanwhile, Maruti's overall volumes were down 1 per cent year-on-year (YoY), as an 8 per cent decline in domestic sales was offset by 41 per cent YoY growth in exports in the month. Within domestic sales, car sales increased by 5 per cent YoY.

M&M's SUV wholesale was 39.4 thousand units, down 9 per cent YoY. Tata's PV volumes were down 10 per cent YoY, with EVs up 44 per cent.

"At the same time, Hyundai's domestic sales were down 11 per cent, while its exports were up 21 per cent in August. We think strong export growth for both MSIL and Hyundai is noteworthy," the report said.

In the two-wheeler (2W) domain, Bajaj's domestic 2W volume was down 12 per cent, while exports were up 25 per cent.

TVS' 2W volumes were up 30 per cent YoY, with domestic volumes rising at 28 per cent and exports at 36 per cent.

RE's domestic volume increased 57 per cent YoY, and exports by 39 per cent as compared to the same month a year ago.

Overall commercial vehicle volumes for key OEMs were up 5 per cent YoY, and the subsegments' LCVs were up by 6 per cent, MHCV by 6 per cent YoY, as buses were up by 3 per cent.

/IANS