KOSPI Falls 3 Percent in Seoul as Samsung Slides After Record Earnings

South Korea's KOSPI fell sharply on Thursday morning, losing 181.1 points, or 3.01 percent, to 5,831.34 by 11:20 a.m. Seoul time, as Samsung Electronics shares slid after the company released its final third quarter results. The index had risen as high as 6,100.11 earlier in the session before the market turned lower shortly before 10 a.m.

Reuters put the fall at 2.18 percent in an earlier reading, with the index down 131.04 points at 5,881.40 as of 01:32 GMT, after the market had risen more than 1 percent earlier in the day. In its global markets wrap, Reuters later reported the KOSPI down 2.6 percent, a sharp reversal after a surge of nearly 7 percent a day earlier, with Samsung shares sliding more than 4 percent and dragging the index lower.

Record profit, falling shares

Samsung's final third quarter results set a record. Consolidated revenue reached 195.25 trillion won, up 126.9 percent from a year earlier, and operating profit reached 107.44 trillion won, up 783.1 percent. The figures were in line with the preliminary estimate the company gave on October 8, which Orbit Post reported at the time (https://theorbitpostnews.us/samsung-record-q3-profit/).

The semiconductor business did almost all of the work. The Device Solutions division posted revenue of 147.1 trillion won and operating profit of 106.5 trillion won, about 99 percent of the group total. Memory revenue was 140.7 trillion won, up 427 percent from a year earlier. The Device Experience division, which covers smartphones and home appliances, booked an operating loss of 8 trillion won.

Investors wanted more back

The shares fell anyway. Yonhap's market report had Samsung down 6.61 percent late in the morning. Aju Press reported the stock trading at 229,500 won, down 5.17 percent, as of 10:40 a.m. The readings differ because they were taken at different times. Yonhap described the earnings as weaker than expected.

The disappointment centred on shareholder returns. Samsung said it would pay 30 trillion won in dividends for the third quarter, or 4,601 won per share. But the company deferred detailed plans for the rest of its return programme to a board meeting scheduled for January 2027. Up to 75 trillion won of that programme remains, excluding the 35 trillion won already executed or confirmed. Samsung also said the shortage of chip supply would deepen next year.

The rest of the Seoul market

Elsewhere in Seoul, battery maker LG Energy Solution fell 9.76 percent after its parent, LG Chem, announced plans to sell 2.5 trillion won worth of shares in the subsidiary. SK hynix rose 0.4 percent. The won traded at 1,333.5 per US dollar at 11:20 a.m., up 8.5 won from the previous session's close.

The Seoul fall came in a mixed session across Asia. Reuters reported that Alphabet shares fell 10 percent in after hours trading, wiping nearly 400 billion dollars off its market value and pushing Nasdaq futures 1 percent lower, while Microsoft rose 3 percent after hours. MSCI's Asia Pacific index outside Japan dropped 0.7 percent, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.3 percent, mainland China's blue chips fell 0.9 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.2 percent.

All index and share figures here are late morning readings from Thursday's Seoul session, not closing prices.