Samsung expects to post record profit of $9.4 billion for Q3

The estimate was slightly higher than analyst predictions and represents a 25 percent increase from a revised operating profit of 8.06 trillion won a year earlier for the world's top maker of smartphones, memory chips and flat-panel TVs.

Analysts said rising memory chip and semiconductor prices were likely the main growth driver in the July-September period, as Samsung's flagship Galaxy S smartphones struggle in the increasingly saturated high end of the global smartphone market.

Samsung's strength in the market for cheaper smartphones was also a factor, they said.

Shortly after the opening bell on Seoul's KOSPI stock index, Samsung shares were trading up 1.2 percent at 1.43 million won.

The third quarter estimate marks a 6.0 percent rise from the April-June quarter, when the tech behemoth posted an operating profit of 9.53 trillion won.

Sales in the July-September period were expected to reach 59 trillion won, up 13 percent from the same period last year.

The world's largest technology firm by revenue was giving earnings guidance before official results later this month.

"This is slightly better than expectations," Choi Do-Yeon at Kyobo Securities told AFP:

"The semiconductor business seems to be on an uptick while the stagnation in the mobile sector is milder than expected," Choi said.

The company did not provide a net profit estimate or a breakdown of figures for each of its business units.

Analysts estimate that Samsung shipped between 85 million and 89 million smartphones in the third quarter.

In the second quarter, Samsung had a dominant 33.1 percent share of the global market, while rival Apple trailed in second place with 13.6 percent, according to researcher Strategy Analytics. Samsung does not disclose unit sales figures for its phones.