Maruti Udyog Ltd on Monday said its sales surged 30.2 per cent in January due to higher demand for premium small cars.

The country's largest carmaker sold an all-time high of 49,140 units during the month against 37,738 units a year earlier.

While domestic sales went up by 31.4 per cent to 44,309 units, exports jumped 20 per cent to 4,831 units, a company statement said in New Delhi.

Maruti's cumulative (April 2003-January 2004) sales grew 30.3 per cent to 377,159 vehicles.

Domestic sales increased 27.6 per cent to 337,288 units while exports climbed 58.2 per cent to 39,871 units.

Despite the record performance in January, sales of its bread-and-butter model M-800 declined 2.1 per cent to 15,301 units but that of Omni van and multi-purpose-vehicle Versa went up by 11.7 per cent to 6,016 units.

In the premium small car segment, sale of Alto, Wagon-R and Zen models soared 86.5 per cent to 21,495 units.

The mid-size cars Esteem and Baleno also clocked a 46 per cent growth at 1,344 units during the review month.

However, the multi-utility-vehicles Gypsy and Vitara suffered a 39.3 per cent drop to 153 units.