Stock rally underscores hopes for Samsung's earnings recovery

Powered by better-than-expected market responses for the new Galaxy Note phablet, expectations for a continued recovery of earnings have propelled shares of Samsung Electronics Co. to an all-time high, after surging more than 30 percent this year.

Shares of Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones, jumped 4.7 percent on Thursday to close at 1,640,000 won ($1,480), a record closing high, and traded at a new intraday record of 1,643,000 won per share in early Friday trade. 

The stock rally came after Samsung had been struggling with fierce competition with Apple Inc. in the high-end smartphone market and with Chinese brands in the low-end market in recent years.

Earlier this month, Samsung unveiled the new Galaxy Note phablet, in a bid to keep up the momentum of its smartphone sales.

The launch of the Galaxy Note 7 came ahead of the latest iPhone launch, expected in autumn, and after Samsung reported its biggest quarterly profit in more than two years thanks to strong sales of Galaxy S7 smartphones.

Samsung posted an operating profit of 8.1 trillion won for the second-quarter of this year, reinforcing views that its earnings may continue to rise in the coming quarter. The handsome results were compared with those of the third-quarter of 2014 when Samsung's operating profit fell to 4.06 trillion won.

Lee Jeong, an analyst at Eugene Investment & Securities in Seoul, attributed the stock rally to Samsung's improved competitiveness in the smartphone business.

"Despite a continued rise, the current stock price is still attractive," Lee said.

The Galaxy Note 7 features an iris scanner and an S-Pen that allows users to translate words. Adding an extra security feature, the iris scanner enables only the owner of a device to use the smartphone.

Pre-order sales of the new Galaxy Note are said to reach about 400,000 units in two weeks.

On Friday, Samsung started actual in-store sales of the new phablet in about 10 nations, including South Korea and the United States.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who has been in hospital since a heart attack in 2014, owns 4.98 million shares of Samsung.

Buoyed by the stock rally, Lee's total stock valuation rose by 2.3 trillion won this year to 13.4 trillion won, according to Chaebul.com, which tracks the wealth of conglomerate tycoons.  (Yonhap)