Samsung Electronics Hits 52-Week Intraday High... Weakness Amid Sales Ranking Drop and Compensation Issue

On the 29th, Samsung Electronics hit a 52-week high during the trading session, supported by foreign buying. However, it closed lower after news that its sales ranking was second.

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On that day in the KOSPI market, Samsung Electronics closed at 72,400 won, down 300 won (0.41%) from the previous day. Early in the session, foreign buying surged, pushing the stock up 0.96% to a 52-week high of 73,400 won, but it turned lower after news that it failed to reclaim the No. 1 semiconductor sales position from Intel. This marks the first time since the 21st that the closing price turned bearish.

Market research firm Omdia reported that the global semiconductor market size in the first quarter shrank 9.4% from the previous quarter to $119.949 billion. As the semiconductor market downturn intensified last year, the total semiconductor industry sales have declined for five consecutive quarters. Omdia described this as "the longest (sales) decline period since market statistics began in 2002."

Based on first-quarter sales, Intel ranked first ($11.139 billion), while Samsung Electronics was second ($8.929 billion). Following them were Qualcomm ($7.942 billion), Broadcom ($6.665 billion), AMD ($5.299 billion), Nvidia ($5.278 billion), Infineon ($4.381 billion), Apple ($4.291 billion), Texas Instruments ($4.270 billion), and STMicroelectronics ($4.427 billion) in order.

Additionally, the previous day, news that Samsung Electronics might have to pay compensation worth several hundred billion won to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for infringing Wi-Fi (wireless internet) related patent technology weighed on the stock price.

Meanwhile, foreign investors have steadily purchased Samsung Electronics shares, anticipating an improvement in the semiconductor industry. As a result, Samsung Electronics’ stock price has risen more than 30% since the beginning of the year.

On the other hand, securities firms’ outlooks on Samsung Electronics vary significantly. IBK Investment & Securities forecast Samsung Electronics’ operating profit for the second quarter to decline to 232 billion won from the first quarter. Ebest Investment & Securities also projected an operating profit of 100 billion won. In contrast, KB Securities estimated Samsung Electronics’ second-quarter operating profit at 901.2 billion won.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.