Hyundai Motor's first quarter operating profit is down by nearly half year-on-year.

A number of factors are being blamed including the strong Korean won and sluggish sales in the U.S. and Chinese markets.

The automaker on Thursday announced its first quarter sales of 22-point-four trillion won and operating profits of 681 billion won.

Compared to the same period last year, sales are down four percent and operating profits by 45-point-five percent.

In particular, the operating profits come as a shock as stock analysts had forecast about 900 billion won.

The firm's net profit of a little over 730 billion won has also plunged 48 percent from last year's first quarter.

The operating profit to sales ratio has also fallen by two-point-four percent to three percent.

Hyundai Motor sold just under one-point-05 million vehicles globally during the January to March period, down one-point-seven percent.

If China is excluded, where sales were weakest, global sales rose two-point-eight percent year-on-year to over 883-thousand units.