Hyundai Motor Co., Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday its first-quarter earnings jumped 30.6 percent from a year earlier on strong sales in overseas markets.

Net profit reached 2.45 trillion won ($2.15 billion) in the January-March period, compared with 1.87 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Sales rose 10.6 percent on-year to 20.16 trillion won in the three-month period, with operating profit jumping 24.9 percent to 2.28 trillion won, the company said.

The company, which is the flagship of Hyundai Motor Group, the world's fifth-largest carmaker, sold 1.07 million vehicles during the cited months, up from 919,130 units a year earlier.

"The latest quarterly showing is a testament to the carmaker's global strategy of continuously improving quality and brand value," the company said in a press release. "Gains are noteworthy because they were achieved with Hyundai taking steps to receive a 'fair' price for its automobiles."

Foreign sales that include both cars shipped from Korea and those made by Hyundai's overseas plants reached 917,879 units in the three months, up 22 percent from the year before.

Despite strong overseas sales, domestic demand contracted 7.1 percent on-year to 154,800 units, while lingering economic concerns in Europe could raise challenges down the road, the company said.

To overcome such developments, Hyundai will continue to improve the quality of its products, launch new models and take active steps to better meet consumer demand, it added.

Hyundai said efforts will be made to strengthen marketing efforts for popular models such as the Sonata and Avante as well as its i30s, Solaris and i10s. The carmaker said once new production plants are built in China and Brazil this year, it should be able to make further inroads in the large emerging markets.

Shares of Hyundai Motor ended at 262,000 won on the Seoul bourse, up 1.75 percent from the previous session. (Yonhap)