UPDATE 1-Samsung Elec rises 3 pct on share buyback talk
July 24th, 2008 | by admin |(Adds details)
SEOUL, July 24 (Reuters) - Shares in Samsung Electronics(005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) rose more than 3 percent on Thursday after talk thatthe world’s No.1 memory chip maker would announce share buybackplans at Friday’s scheduled quarterly results announcement.
“There is a good chance that Samsung Electronics will unveilshare buyback plans tomorrow, as their share prices have sufferedsteep falls during the latest bearish run,” said Suh Do-won, ananalyst at Hanwha Securities.
Shares in Samsung, also the world’s leading LCD display makerand No. 2 mobile phone manufacturer, had fallen more than 20percent since mid-May as of Wednesday’s closing.
They were up 3.41 percent to 607,000 won by 0233 GMT, leadingthe wider market’s 1.86 percent gain.
“The buyback size will likely be around 1 trillion won ($991million),” Suh added.
A Samsung spokesman said he was aware of the market talk, butdeclined to comment.
The company last bought back shares between January and March2007, when the purchases totalled 1.82 trillion won. Samsung, along with other chip makers, has suffered aprolonged downturn in the memory chip industry and also faces aslowing global economy, which could hurt its flat-screen TV andhigh-end mobile phone sales.
Samsung’s second-quarter net profit is forecast to jump morethan 60 percent to 2.3 trillion won, boosted by robustflat-screen and mobile phone earnings. ($1=1009.0 Won) (Reporting by Park Jung-youn and Rhee So-eui; editing by KeironHenderson)
