Hyundai Motor Q2 net profit jumps 48 pct to record

SEOUL, July 23 (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co (005380.KS), South Korea's top automaker, posted on Thursday a record quarterly net profit with a surprise 48 percent jump in earnings as a weaker won helped offshore sales and government measures boosted local demand.

Hyundai, the world's No.5 car maker along with its affiliate Kia Motors Corp (000270.KS), posted a net profit of 811.9 billion won ($649.9 million) in the second quarter, soundly beating a 456 billion won forecast by 10 analysts in a Reuters poll.

That compared favourably with a 546.9 billion won net profit a year earlier and marked a strong gain from a 225 billion won profit posted in the first three months of the year.

The maker of the Elantra compact car reported a 657.3 billion won operating profit in the April-June period, also larger than a forecast for a 496.5 billion won profit.

Hyundai and Kia are expected to continue to outperform their rivals fuelled by a weaker won currency, an increasing appetite for smaller cars and improving brand image, analysts said.

Reflecting Hyundai's bright outlook, the company's shares jumped more than a third in the quarter ended on June 30, outpacing the wider market's .KS11 15 percent gain. ($1=1249.1 Won) (Reporting by Cheon Jong-woo; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Jonathan Hopfner)