Samsung completes its 53.8 million-share buyback days before preliminary Q3 results

Dividing 53.8 million shares by 100.96% puts Samsung Electronics' original plan at roughly 53.3 million shares ^[1], so the company bought about half a million more than it set out to ^[2]. The report does not say what the program cost in won, or whether Samsung intends to run another ^[4]. Under this plan, at least, Samsung's cash has stopped going into its own stock ^[4].

The purchases ran through October 1, so the October 2 session was the first without them ^[4]. SK hynix, sold by the same foreign investors, rose as much as 1.48% before settling around 0.5% ^[6]. Samsung drifted either side of flat ^[5].

New York had pointed higher. By mid-morning, SK hynix's Seoul shares had kept about a tenth of their ADR's overnight gain ^[6]. The report, citing industry analysts, puts the selling down to profit-taking before the National Foundation Day holiday, with investors watching U.S. Treasury yields ^[8]. Overnight, a dovish Federal Reserve official had tempered expectations of further rate increases ^[9].

The KOSPI's previous close works out to 6,971.35 ^[3]. Measured from there, the morning's swing between 6,927 and 6,995.19 covered about 68 points, roughly 1% of the index ^[4]. The high stopped 4.81 points short of 7,000 ^[5].

The jobs data comes first. "If the U.S. employment report released on the 2nd confirms a slowdown in hiring, concerns about additional tightening are likely to ease and the burden from rates should lessen," said Lee Kyoung-min, an analyst at Daishin Securities ^[11]. Then the results. Han Ji-young of Kiwoom Securities expects limited upside into the holiday as some profit-taking emerges ^[14]. "Starting with Samsung Electronics' preliminary results next week, the third-quarter earnings season should support the view that the profit cycle remains intact, so it would be appropriate to prioritize a strategy of increasing exposure to the AI value chain," Han said ^[13].

I think the results will move Samsung more than the missing bid will, because its first session without company purchases trailed SK hynix by only about half a point ^[5][6]. The counter-case is that one pre-holiday morning is a thin sample for a buyer that had been in the market since August ^[4]. The view is wrong if Samsung falls behind SK hynix after the preliminary print ^[1] while foreigners keep selling both ^[7].