It seems that General Motors Corp. has recovered from its 50 years of lows in the U.S. stock market,  accounted earlier this month, as the automaker reported the global sales figures this week. Shares of General Motors on Wednesday had traded about $16 per share for the first time in more than a month.

Wednesday morning GM shares hit as high as $16.43 a share, up almost $1.75, before closing at $14.58 a share, up 1.82 percent in mid- afternoon. On July 15, the automaker’s stock hit as low as $8.81 a share.

The record high gasoline prices and consumer demand for fuel- efficient smaller cars have plummeted the automaker’s shares in the stock market for a significantly long time. Over the past 52 weeks, GM’s shares have traded between $8.81 and $43.20.

The Detroit- based automaker reported that it sold a total of 4.5 million vehicles in the first six months of this year. The sales outside North America improved 10 percent or 116,000 units of car. It posted record- breaking sales in regions including Latin America, Asia and Europe. Despite this, the automaker’s total sales fell 2.9 percent in the first half of 2008.

GM’s global sales in the second quarter of this year fell 5 percent and sales for North America dropped a 20 percent, as compared to the same period last year.

Reportedly, the oil prices also dropped $20 a barrel from weeks ago. On Wednesday, oil dropped $2.74 to $125.68 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Along with GM, other automakers’ shares also got a boost recently. The shares of Ford Motor Co.  closed at $6.03 a share, up 3.25 percent Wednesday. Over the past 52 weeks, its shares have traded between $4.30 and $9.24 a share. Ford plans to report its second quarter sales

This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under General Motors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.