Mumbai, May 26: Troubled auto maker Tata Motors has skipped a dividend after 13 years - botching its record of being a robust and consistent dividend-paying company.

The $41.3-billion car and truck maker chose not to make a payout to shareholders after it reported a sudden and unexpected Rs 4,738.95-crore loss in its domestic operations for the year ended March 31, 2015, snapping a profit-making streak that dates back to March 2003.

The Tata giant's performance was also clouded by the sharp decline in profits at Jaguar Land Rover, the UK-based car maker it acquired in 2008.

The car maker has consistently paid dividends since 1989 and missed out on a payout in only two years - 2000-01 and 2001-02 - after reporting seven successive quarters of losses that forced it to re-engineer its Indica platform.

The results were announced after market hours and market mavens believe even though the stock is likely to be pounded tomorrow, the prospects for the company could improve if the economy turns around in the next few months.

The Tata Motors stock closed at Rs 497.10 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday, down 1.6 per cent.

The auto maker had a bad fourth quarter, reporting a 56.19 per cent fall in consolidated net profits at Rs 1,716.50 crore compared with Rs 3,918.29 crore in the corresponding period of last year.

Jaguar Land Rover posted a lower net profit of £302 million (£449 million) during the quarter on a turnover of nearly £5.83 billion (£5.34 billion).

The domestic operations proved to be the big drag on the consolidated results. The stand-alone business posted a higher net loss of Rs 1,164 crore in the fourth quarter against Rs 817 crore in the same period last year.

For the full year, the domestic business showed a loss of Rs 4,738.95 crore compared with a net profit of Rs 334.52 crore in the preceding year.

"Considering the weak operating environment in the standalone business, and in view of the losses for the year, no dividend is permitted to be paid to the members for 2014-15, as per the Companies (Declaration and Payment of Dividend) Rules, 2014," the company said. In 2013-14, the company had declared a dividend of Rs 2 per share (100 per cent dividend).

The skipping of dividend is bad news for Tata Motors shareholders who had enthusiastically subscribed to the auto major's Rs 7,500-crore rights issue just three weeks ago.

Consolidated profits were well below analysts' estimates of around Rs 4,000 crore for the quarter.

On a standalone basis, higher depreciation of Rs 2,603.22 crore and an exchange loss of Rs 320.5 crore on revaluation of foreign currency borrowings also contributed to the higher net loss. Depreciation on a consolidated basis swelled to Rs 13,388.63 crore. While standalone net revenues during the quarter came in at Rs 10,784 crore (Rs 8,545 crore), it stood at Rs 36,295 crore (Rs 34,288 crore) for the full year.

Tata Motors' senior management felt that the passenger vehicle segment could start recovering from the second half of the year with a slew of launches.