Led by market leader Hyundai Motor Co., the five carmakers sold a combined 119,612 vehicles in the local market, up 8.1 percent from a year earlier.

Their combined overseas sales also gained 1.4 percent on-year to 526,320 units.

The five carmakers include Kia Motors Corp., an affiliate of Hyundai Motor and No. 2 carmaker here, and GM Korea Co., the local unit of US automaker General Motor Co. The rest are Ssangyong Motor Co., the South Korean unit of Indian carmaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., and Renault Samsung Motors Co., the local unit of French automaker Renault S.A.

Hyundai Motor saw its domestic sales jump 8.7 percent on-year to 53,113 cars in February, marking a turnaround from a 9.5 percent on-year plunge in the previous month.

The company said the recently launched new Grandeur mid-size sedan helped push up its domestic sales.

"The new Grandeur has sold more than 10,000 units for the third consecutive month since its launch in December," the company said in a press release.

Hyundai Motor introduced the latest trim of the new Grandeur with a 3.3-liter gasoline engine here earlier Thursday.

The company said its overseas sales inched up 0.3 percent from a year earlier, putting its overall sales at 341,345 cars, up 1.5 percent from the same month last year.

Kia Motors too posted positive growth both at home and abroad.

Kia Motors said its domestic sales gained 0.1 percent to 39,158 cars, with overseas sales expanding 2.5 percent on-year to 188,665 cars in February. Its overall sales rose 2.1 percent on-year to 227,823 cars.

GM Korea was the only carmaker here to see its domestic sales shrink last month. The company said its domestic sales slipped 1.7 percent on-year to 11,227 cars. Still, its overall sales gained 1.7 percent on-year to 45,366 cars as a 2.8-percent rise in its exports more than offset the drop in domestic sales.

Renault Samsung, on the other hand, had its domestic sales nearly double from 4,263 cars sold in February 2016 to 8,008 cars last month.

The company attributed such a sharp increase to brisk sales of its new SM6 mid-size sedan, which sold 3,900 units here in February alone, marking an astonishing 1,259 percent on-year spike.

Renault Samsung said its outbound shipments also surged 13.7 percent to 12,574 cars in February, pulling up its overall sales by 34.3 percent to 20,582.

Like the other four automakers here, Ssangyong Motor saw its overall sales grow from a year earlier last month, but only due to a large increase in sales here that helped more than offset a sharp drop in exports.

Ssangyong Motor's overall sales gained 2.3 percent on-year to 10,816 cars last month.

Its domestic sales jumped 16.1 percent to 8,106 cars, while outbound shipments plunged 24.6 percent to 2,710 cars.

"Ssangyong expects steady sales growth in the overseas market as well since the company is accelerating its efforts to expand into new markets," the company said in a press release. (Yonhap)