Mumbai: Shares in Tata Motors fell nearly 6% on Tuesday morning after a series of block deals, which one source said was German carmaker Daimler AG selling its holding in the Indian vehicle maker.

Exchange data showed more than 25 million shares changed hands at a weighted average price of Rs758.45 each, a discount of 4.8% to Monday’s close at Rs796.75.

“It had a negative impact because of the huge chunk of shares which were sold all at once,” said Ambareesh Baliga, vice president at Hyderabad-based brokerage Karvy Stock Broking.

Sources had told Reuters on Monday that Daimler was selling its entire 5.34% stake, or 25.6 million shares, in Tata Motors for up to $429 million.

Shares in Tata Motors, which has a market value of $9.1 billion, were trading down 3.6 percent at Rs767.85 by 0534 GMT after hitting 750. One source with direct knowledge of the transaction said Daimler was the seller.

It could not be immediately confirmed who had bought the shares. The Tata Group had said it was not interested in buying the stake.

Analysts said there would be no long-term impact from the stake sale as Tata Motors and Daimler were no longer working together in India.

“Their joint operations ceased long back. This was just a minority stake and it was known that it would be sold,” said Umesh Karne, auto analyst with Brics Securities.

Tata initially started by manufacturing trucks in collaboration with Daimler from 1954 till 1969, when their agreement ended.

Tata, which owns the luxury Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) brands and also makes the ultra-cheap Nano, is India’s largest vehicles maker. Vehicle sales, excluding JLR, between last April and February this year were 567,535 units, up 28% from a year earlier.

Shares in Tata Motors had nearly quadrupled percent in 2009, outpacing the main index’s 81% rise. They are up 0.5% this year, compared with a 2% decline in the benchmark.