Samsung shares battered again over Note 7 woes

[SEOUL] Samsung shares took another nose dive as trading opened on Wednesday, a day after the South Korean electronics giant killed off its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone due to a crisis with exploding batteries.

The share price on the South Korean stock exchange fell by as much as three percent in early trade, reflecting investor concern that the disastrous brand fallout from the Note 7 debacle could impact the rest of Samsung's diverse product line.

The share price had plunged 8.0 per cent on Tuesday - the biggest one-day fall since 2008 - wiping around US$17 billion off Samsung's market value.

After a month-long recall nightmare, Samsung announced on Tuesday it was scrapping production and halting all future sales of the Note 7, and advised all customers to cease using the device immediately.

The company had initially recalled 2.5 million Note 7 units in early September, following reports that the batteries were causing the devices to catch fire.

The real damage to the company's reputation came when replacement phones handed out by the recall also started burning up.

Discontinuing the Note 7 leaves Samsung extremely vulnerable as the highly-competitive market for premium smartphones enters the holiday buying season.

Arch-rival Apple launched its latest iPhone 7 last month, and Google came out with its Pixel smartphone, which runs on the same Android software as Samsung's devices.

AFP