Samsung s Q1 operating profit likely to jump 30%

Seoul March 8 (IANS) Riding on strong sales of semiconductors Samsung Electronics is likely to report a 30-per cent jump in its first-quarter operating profit market data showed Wednesday.

According to a survey of earnings forecasts by market tracker FnGuide Samsung is likely to post an operating profit of 8.7 trillion won ($7.5 billion) for the January-March quarter up 30.6 per cent from the same quarter last year Yonhap news agency reported.

January-March sales are likely to fall 0.3 per cent on year to 49.6 trillion won.

With demand for high-performance data storage devices growing the operating profit from the semiconductor division of Samsung is expected to surpass five trillion won for the three-month period analysts said.

Samsung is the world s largest maker of computer memory chips and flash memory chips for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Samsung is still reeling from the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone which was discontinued in October last year over safety concerns.

But analysts reckon that profits in Samsung s mobile division may recover in the first quarter.

--IANS
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