PRE-MARKET SOUTH KOREAN STOCKS NEWS: Hyundai Motor (005380 KS) October vehicle sales fell 6.3% Y/Y to 329,773 units, Kia (000270 KS) October vehicle sales rose 10.3% Y/Y to 291,219 units

Daewoo Engineering & Construction (047040 KS) - Co. requested government mediation in a dispute with South Korea's state-run nuclear power operator over a major nuclear reactor project in the Czech Republic. (Yonhap)

Hyundai Motor (005380 KS) - Co. October vehicle sales fell 6.3% Y/Y to 329,773 units, with domestic sales down 8.9% to 49,042 units and overseas sales down 5.9% to 280,731 units, while South Korea's finance minister met with the Co.'s chairman to discuss EV industry policies and tax incentives. (Yonhap)

KG Mobility (003620 KS) - Co. October vehicle sales fell 31.3% Y/Y to 6,537 units, with domestic sales down 42.4% to 2,037 units and exports down 24.7% to 4,500 units amid weak demand. (Yonhap)

Kia (000270 KS) - Co. October vehicle sales rose 10.3% Y/Y to 291,219 units, driven by strong overseas demand for SUV models. (Yonhap)

Korea Aerospace Industries (047810 KS) - Co. delivered its first two FA-50M light combat aircraft to Malaysia under a 2023 contract to supply 18 jets. (Yonhap)

POSCO Holdings (005490 KS) - Co. Q3 (KRW) net fell 1.8% Y/Y to 380bln, EBIT rose 47.9% Y/Y to 940bln, rev. rose 10.9% Y/Y to 19.14tln. (Yonhap)

Samsung C&T (028260 KS) - Co. acquired engineering, procurement and construction business Powertech in a deal valued at approximately AUD 100mln, seeking to capitalise on growing energy transition demand. (AFR)

Monthly Korean auto sales prints of this kind have tended to matter less as a single month's direction than as a read on the export mix: Hyundai and Kia have diverged on exactly this axis in past cycles, with SUV-heavy overseas demand cushioning one name while the other absorbs softer domestic volumes, and the market has generally treated the spread between domestic and export lines as the cleaner signal than the headline total. The Hyundai print fits a familiar pattern in which overseas volumes dominate the consolidated figure, so a low-single-digit export decline has historically been read as demand normalisation rather than channel stress; KG Mobility's much steeper fall is consistent with the long-running pattern of smaller domestic makers lacking the export breadth to offset weak home demand. The finance minister's meeting with Hyundai's chairman on EV incentives is the kind of policy engagement that has preceded subsidy and tax-credit adjustments in the past, making any follow-through announcement on EV support the operative tell for the sector. Elsewhere in the wrap, POSCO's split between a roughly flat bottom line and a much stronger operating result mirrors earlier episodes where non-operating items distorted the net figure while steel margins recovered, and the Daewoo mediation request over the Czech reactor project is a reminder that Korean export-construction names carry contract-dispute risk on flagship overseas projects. The immediate follow-ons are the other Korean automakers' monthly prints for confirmation of the divergence, any policy statement from the finance ministry, and whether the nuclear dispute moves from mediation toward arbitration.