Hyundai Motor's first-quarter profit rose 46 percent as gains in overseas vehicle sales countered a sluggish domestic market.
Investors cheered the news, sending the company's share price up more than 7 percent.
Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's largest automaker and a major force in the global industry, earned 1.88 trillion won ($1.75 billion) in the three months ended March 31, it announced Thursday. That compared with net profit of 1.28 trillion won a year earlier. First-quarter revenue increased 21 percent to 18.2 trillion won, and overall vehicle sales rose 9.2 percent to 919,130.
Shares in Hyundai Motor surged 7.3 percent Thursday to close at 250,500 won. The company's stock price has jumped 44 percent so far this year.
The company recorded strong profits last year due to strength in its overseas factories and sales operations. Hyundai has pursued an aggressive overseas expansion and now has factories in China, India, the United States, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Russia and is building one in Brazil. Sales in South Korea fell 0.8 percent to 166,664 vehicles in the first quarter. The company attributed the decline to what described as ``exceptionally high' results during the same period last year. Overseas, however, sales rose 11.6 percent to 752,466 vehicles, Hyundai said. The gain was mostly driven by the company's revamped Elantra sedan, it said.
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