US auto shares fall after disappointing March sales data

Shares of General Motors, Fiat Chrysler and several other automakers hit the skids on Monday after reporting lacklustre new US vehicles sales for March, stoking investors’ worries that the domestic auto industry has hit a plateau.

GM shares fell more than 4 per cent after it revealed that sales were up 1 per cent year-on-year in March to 256,224, falling short of market expectations. Fiat Chrysler shares traded in New York were off more than 5.3 per cent after reporting that US sales had fallen 5 per cent in March.

Ford, whose March sales declined 7 per cent from a year earlier, saw its shares fall 2.8 per cent, while Nissan and Honda — both of which reported weak sales for passenger cars last month — also saw their US-listed shares fall into the red.

Electric car-maker Tesla, meanwhile, was sitting pretty compared to its conventional rivals, with shares up 5.4 per cent on Monday, after reporting over the weekend that it had beat analysts’ expectations by delivering 25,000 cars during the first quarter of the year.