The owner of Jaguar Land Rover has seen shares crash after posting the biggest-ever quarterly loss in Indian corporate history.

Tata Motors Ltd's shares crashed as much as 30 per cent after warning JLR would swing to an operating loss in the year to March.

The Midlands car maker had been projected to breakeven.

Jaguar Land Rover has reported pre-tax losses of £273m for the third quarter of 2018.

The car giant’s latest results also revealed sales were down by almost 10,000 vehicles for the three month period compared to 2017.

Jaguar Land Rover said the fall in sales was primarily due to “continued challenging market conditions in China”.

Despite analysts expecting a profit, Tata Motors posted a third-quarter loss of 269.93 billion rupees ($3.8 billion) on Thursday.

“We are now taking clear and decisive actions in JLR to step up its competitiveness, reduce costs and improve cash flows and make the business fit for the future,” Chief Financial Officer PB Balaji told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.

The company is also coping with the challenges posed by declining demand for diesels and uncertainty over Brexit.

On a positive note the car maker said it had seen sales growth in both its North American and UK markets.

The quarter-of-a-billion pound loss came despite revenues remaining similar to those for the final quarter of 2017 - £6.2bn compared to £6.3bn.

The latest results come amid a huge £2.5bn cost-saving programme which aims to turn the company’s fortunes around by March 2020.

Last week, BirminghamLive reported how around 200 to 400 agency workers were to be struck off following an initial announcement back in April .

The new year jobs cull at the UK car giant began at Lode Lane in Solihull .

The move to axe agency jobs is in line with the manufacturing of its Discovery moving to a new £1bn factory in Nitra, Slovakia in February.

Staff were originally briefed on November 29 and those affected were officially stood down on Friday, January 25.

On January 24, it was revealed that there will be an additional week-long stand-down of production in April.

Jaguar Land Rover CEO Dr Ralf Speth said: “Jaguar Land Rover reported strong third quarter sales in the UK and North America, but our overall performance continued to be impacted by challenging market conditions in China.

“We continue to work closely with Chinese retailers to respond to current market conditions with a ‘pull’ based approach to vehicle sales.

“Today, we are also announcing a non-cash exceptional charge to reduce the book value of our capitalised investments.

“This accounting adjustment is consistent with the other decisive actions that we must take as part of our Charge and Accelerate transformation programmes to create an efficient and resilient business, enabling Jaguar Land Rover to counter the multiple economic, geopolitical, technological and regulatory headwinds presently impacting the automotive industry.

“We are taking the right decisions to prepare the company for the new technologies and strong product offensive that will enable a long term future of sustainable profitable growth.”

In a statement the car maker said: “The financial results mainly reflect lower sales in China and higher depreciation and amortization of investment expenses.

“The third quarter was also impacted by one-off factors including costs related to planned reduction in inventories, warranty reserve adjustments and currency and commodity revaluation.

“The automotive industry is facing significant market, technological, and regulatory headwinds.

“At the same time, investment in new models, electrification and other technologies remains high.”

The company said it had already achieved cost savings of £500m during the third quarter of 2018.

It also revealed that the cost of its recently announced redundancy programme would be around £200m.

Jaguar Land Rover is continuing with its new model push.

It recently launched its all-new Range Rover Evoque and the new Land Rover Defender will be revealed later this year.

It is also developing its electric vehicle plans and recently announced it would be building electric motors at its UK Engine Manufacturing Centre near Wolverhampton and creating a new Battery Assembly Centre at Hams Hall in Warwickshire .

In October it opened its new factory in Slovakia which will build the Land Rover Discovery.

The company ended the year with cash reserves of £2.5bn.

Mr Speth added: “This is a difficult time for the industry, but we remain focused on ensuring sustainable and profitable growth, and making targeted investments, that will secure our business in the future.”