Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's largest automaker, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit dropped 2.2 percent from a year earlier, affected by the strong local currency that hurts its overseas sales.

Net profit came to 1.98 trillion won about (US$1.83 billion) during the January-March period, compared with 2.03 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The first-quarter operating profit also dropped 18.1 percent on-year to 1.59 trillion won over the cited period, while sales shrank 3.3 percent to 20.94 trillion won, the company said.

The first-quarter net was well above the median estimate of 1.79 trillion won in a poll of 21 brokerages conducted by (Yonhap) Infomax, the financial news arm of South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency. Operating profit, however, was below the consensus estimated at 1.71 trillion won Hyundai Motor shares traded 1.18 percent higher at 172,000 won as of 2:07 p.m. on Seoul bourse.