Samsung shares hit over Galaxy Note battery explosion reports

Tech giant Samsung Electronics touched two-week lows on Thursday on concerns for mobile earnings after it delayed shipments of its premium Galaxy Note 7 smartphone amid reports of exploding batteries.
The firm announced the delays for quality control testing late on Wednesday and also said Galaxy Note 7 shipments to South Korea’s top three mobile carriers had been halted, rattling investor hopes for strong second-half mobile earnings.
Quality control problems, if confirmed, could deal a major blow to the world’s top smartphone maker, which was counting on the Galaxy Note 7 to defend sales momentum against new Apple phones expected to be unveiled next week.
“Apple is supposed to show off the iPhone 7 next week and this issue (with Samsung) has emerged, so the current state of things do not look good,” HDC Asset Management fund manager Park Jung-hoon said.