Samsung forecast beats market expectations for first quarter

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday unveiled a record first quarter sales forecast and said it saw a better-than-expected performance for profits, beating market expectations.

- 

The firm is the flagship subsidiary of South Korean giant Samsung Group, by far the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate business in Asia's fourth-largest economy.

The tech giant said in a regulatory filing that its January-March operating profits were expected to rise to 6.6 trillion won ($4.5 billion), down 0.15 per cent from a year earlier but up nearly two per cent on the previous quarter.

This was almost 34 per cent higher than the average estimate, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency, which cited its own financial data firm.