Samsung Electronics today said it would post its first quarterly profit gain in two years, beating expectations as strong sales of chips and displays probably offset weakness in its smartphone division.
The South Korean tech giant estimated its third quarter operating profit would leap 79.8% from a year earlier to 7.3 trillion won ($6.29 billion).
This compared with a 6.7 trillion won profit tipped by analysts.
While analysts attributed much of the earnings surprise to the weaker won, Samsung's shares were on track for their biggest daily percentage gain in nearly four years as investors saw an end to successive quarters of declining earnings.
The weaker won added about 300 billion won to operating profit, while cost-cutting and improved smartphone inventory management also probably helped, analysts said.
The world's biggest maker of smartphones and memory chips guided for a 7.5% revenue increase for the third quarter, in line with expectations.
It gave no further details about its performance, and said it will disclose full results in late October.
Samsung said its semiconductor division is expected to have remained the top earner for the fifth quarter in a row, analysts said.
Display earnings are believed to have been boosted by rising sales to external clients such as Huawei Technologies, they added.
Smartphone earnings are likely to have improved from a year earlier on the back of new lower-end models and the August launch of the premium Galaxy Note 5.
But the firm has yet to win back market share from Apple in the premium segment or its Chinese rivals in the lower end of the market despite revamping its product lineup, according to research firms.
