[THE INVESTOR] Kia Motors said on June 1 its car sales rose 9 percent in May from a year earlier on recovering demand for its vehicles.

Kia sold 247,176 vehicles last month, up from 226,826 units a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

The monthly sales were buoyed by increased domestic and overseas sales of new and upgraded models, such as the Stonic subcompact SUV, the Stinger sports car, the Rio subcompact and the Sportage SUV, it said.

Domestic sales climbed 8.1 percent on-year to 47,046 units in May from 43,522. Overseas sales were up 9.2 percent to 200,130 from 183,304 over the same period, the statement said.

In the January-May period, Kia’s sales grew 3.9 percent to 1.13 million autos from 1.09 million units in the year-ago period, it said.

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