SEOUL, July 22 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's biggest automaker Hyundai Motor posted double-digit growth in the second-quarter operating profit on demand for sport utility vehicle (SUV), the company said Monday.

Operating profit advanced 30.2 percent from a year earlier to 1.24 trillion won (1.05 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June quarter, recording the highest in two years since the second quarter of 2017.

It surpassed market expectations of about 1.1 trillion won (930 million U.S. dollars) on solid demand for SUVs and newly launched vehicles.

The local currency's depreciation to the dollar also made a positive contribution to the earnings.

Revenue gained 9.1 percent over the year to 26.97 trillion won (22.9 billion U.S. dollars) in the second quarter, and net income jumped 23.3 percent to 999.3 billion won (848.3 million U.S. dollars).

In the global market, Hyundai sold a total of 1,104,916 vehicles in the June quarter, down 7.3 percent from a year earlier. It was attributed to weak demand from major markets, including China and the United States.

For the first six months of this year, Hyundai's revenue grew 8.1 percent to 50.95 trillion won (43.3 billion U.S. dollars) compared with the same period of last year.

Operating profit jumped 26.4 percent to 2.06 trillion won (1.75 billion U.S. dollars) in the January-June period.