Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) on Friday reported a 4.5% year-on-year (YoY) growth in domestic wholesales for October at 144,277 units, indicating a spike in demand during the festival season.

India’s largest carmaker, however, continued to record a decline in its mini car category where it sells its most affordable small car Alto along with the newly launched S-Presso. The company reported wholesales of 28,537 units for last month as against 32,835 units dispatched in October last year.

In the compact car segment, where it sells Wagon R, Celerio, Swift, Dzire, Baleno and Ignis models, total wholesales were at 75,094 units, up 16% YoY. Meanwhile, volumes of its midsize sedan Ciaz fell to 2,371 units in October from 3,892 units in the year-ago period.

Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) wholesales were at 23,108 units for last month, rising 11% YoY on launch of a new model and steady demand. It sells Vitara Brezza, S-Cross, Ertiga and the newly launched XL6 models in this category. The company had reported wholesales of 20,764 utility vehicles in the year-ago period.

Maruti’s total domestic passenger vehicle wholesales stood at 139,121 units in October, up 2.3% YoY.

Light commercial vehicle dispatches rose too during the last month. Wholesales of Super Carry stood at 2,429 units as against 2,152 units in October last year.

MSIL supplied 2,727 units of its compact hatchback Baleno to Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd, which sells the rebadged version of the same as Glanza model.

The Indian carmaker also shipped out 9,158 units last month as against 8,666 units in the year-ago period, thereby reporting an uptick of 6% YoY.

On a cumulative basis, Maruti Suzuki’s year-to-date wholesales in FY20, including domestic and exports, stood at 894,346 units, down 20% YoY.

The company recently told Mint that although it plans to roll back discounts from November, discounting schemes will continue in accordance with the market demand. Maruti’s average discount per vehicle peaked at ₹25,761 during Q2FY20. The same stood at ₹18,758 units per vehicle during Q2FY19.

The company said its inventory with dealerships across India is now averaging 30-32 days.