Hyundai News Bot

Hyundai Motor said Thursday that second-quarter net profit rose 48 percent from a year earlier despite a decline in sales.

Hyundai Motor Co., which along with affiliate Kia Motors Corp. forms the world's fifth-biggest automotive group, said in a regulatory filing it earned 811.85 billion won ($650 million) in the three months ended June 30. It posted net profit of 546.9 billion won a year earlier.

Sales during the quarter fell 11 percent to 8.08 trillion won from 9.11 trillion won a year earlier.

The result snapped four straight quarters of decline in net profit at Hyundai, which has been expanding aggressively overseas while gaining a global reputation for quality.

Hyundai's business, like that of other automakers, has been hit by falling demand amid the global economic downturn. Still, the Ulsan, South Korea-based company has worked to gain market share and introduced new models.

The company, South Korea's largest automaker, said earlier this month that global auto sales jumped 9.6 percent in June from the same month last year to a record high 278,485 vehicles.

Hyundai attributed the gain to rising demand for new vehicles in South Korea spurred by a government incentive program to trade in older models.

Hyundai said in a release Thursday that second-quarter vehicle sales eked out a 1.2 percent gain from the same period last year, though slipped 5.8 percent for the first six months of this year.

Shares in Hyundai Motor, which released earnings results before the stock market closed, fell 1.4 percent to 83,000 won with less than an hour left in the trading session.

View the full article