Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it expected the memory chip boom to continue in the current quarter, after reporting a record operating profit for the three months through June.

The world's biggest maker of memory chips, smartphones and television sets is widely expected to break profit records for the full year, as better-than-forecast performance in its mobile business lifted quarterly operating profit slightly above its early-July guidance, analysts said.

The company on Thursday also announced its third share buyback of the year, at KRW 1.7 trillion ($1.53 billion or rougly Rs. 9,802 crores) worth of common shares, as part of the KRW 9.3 trillion (roughly Rs. 53,629 crores) annual total that Samsung promised in January. It also announced the cancellation of KRW 2 trillion worth of its own shares.

"Looking ahead to the third quarter, the company expects favourable semiconductor conditions to continue, although overall earnings may slightly decline quarter-on-quarter as earnings weaken for the display panel and mobile businesses," Asia's third most-valuable company by market value said in a statement.

Analysts nevertheless forecast third-quarter earnings to exceed the second quarter on the strength of the so-called memory chip super-cycle.

"We think more than KRW 15 trillion (in third-quarter profit) is more than possible," said analyst Greg Roh at HMC Investment & Securities.

Source: Khaleej Times