[THE INVESTOR] Hyundai Motor said on June 1 its May sales rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier on recovering demand for its vehicles.

Hyundai sold 387,017 vehicles in May, up from 366,256 units a year earlier, helped by increased overseas sales, the company said in a statement.

“The monthly results were helped by increased shipments of the Kona subcompact SUV to overseas markets, recovering sales in China and robust sales in emerging economies, such as Brazil and Russia,” the statement said.

Domestic sales climbed 2.1 percent to 61,896 units last month from 60,607 a year ago, and overseas sales were up 6.4 percent to 325,121 from 305,649 during the same period, it said.

In the January-May period, sales gained 2.4 percent to 1.83 million units from 1.79 million units a year earlier, the statement said.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)