India car sales buck oil's gloomy trend

Mumbai

INVESTORS looking for a break from the doom and gloom of the past two years in the oil market need only turn to a hot, noisy lot in Mumbai.

There on a recent Saturday, a tall, cricket-loving, 34-year-old engineer named Anil Gaikwad took part in a rite of passage that for nearly a century has helped define entry to India's middle class: he bought a car. And with that, his life got easier as he cut his commuting time and parked his motorcycle.

Mr Gaikwad's sudden upgrade from being a mere petrol sipper is emblematic of a larger trend in India. The country is the new "star performer" in oil demand, taking over from China as the world's main growth market, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA). Increasing consumption in nations like India will be needed to maintain oil's steady rebound from a 12-year low as demand slides i…