NEW DELHI: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India’s top-selling carmaker, said on Tuesday first-quarter net profit rose 56 per cent helped by lower costs, favourable foreign exchange rates and higher sales, but still missed bullish analyst estimates. Maruti, controlled by Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, said profit for the April to June quarter was INR 11.9 billion, up from INR 7.6 billion in the same period a year earlier. Analysts had expected a profit of INR 12.35 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Net sales rose about 18 per cent to INR 130.8 billion, the company said, as India’s car trade continues to grow. India is expected to become the world’s third-largest car market by 2020, moving up three places.

PBoC policy changes

BEIJING: China’s central bank said on Tuesday that it will use various monetary tools to maintain appropriate levels of liquidity in the second half of this year. People’s Bank of China (PBoC) added that the country’s main economic indicators are steadily improving. Plunging share markets have added to concerns about the health of the world’s second-biggest economy, rattling global financial markets. China’s factory sector contracted by most in 15 months in July as shrinking orders depressed output, a preliminary private survey showed on Friday, a worse-than-expected result that comes on heels of a stock market crash which began in June.

US home prices

WASHINGTON: US home prices rose steadily in May, pushed higher by a healthy increase in sales this year. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index increased 4.9 per cent in May from 12 months earlier, down from a five per cent pace in April, as per S&P Dow Jones Indices. Home sales have jumped in recent months as an improving economy boosts hiring and enables more people to afford a purchase.