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(BLOOMBERG) Tepid demand for Samsung Electronics Co.’s newest Galaxy smartphones triggered a fifth straight monthly decline for the electronics maker, wiping out about $44 billion in market value since April.
Shares of the world’s biggest smartphone vendor slumped 8.1 percent this month, extending their longest losing streak since December 1983. Samsung dropped almost $12 billion of value in August alone as the South Korean company surrendered market share to Apple Inc. and Chinese competitors.
Samsung’s decision to steal a march on Apple and advance the release of new Galaxy smartphones failed to dispel pessimism about its second-half earnings. Apple is expected to take the wraps off a new iPhone on September 9 and release it in time for the crucial end-of-year holiday shopping season.
“We all know its smartphone business isn’t doing well,” said Lee Seung Woo, an analyst at IBK Securities Co. in Seoul. “I can’t really figure out when the stock will stop declining. The fundamentals look problematic.”
The stock has been the biggest drag on the 758-member Kospi index in the past six months, leading the benchmark 2.2 percent lower in the period. It ended Friday at 1,089,000 won.
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