Samsung Electronics said on Friday its fourth-quarter net income rose more than 20 per cent from a year earlier despite the waning global demand for memory chips, beating market expectations. Its net income totalled 7.

The world’s largest maker of memory chips and smartphones posted better-than-expected net profit for the fourth quarter, but its core semiconductor business weakened sequentially.

Samsung Electronics reported fourth-quarter profit that rose 130% from a low base, confirming it had missed earlier estimates due to slowing memory chip demand and extra costs as it works towards providing high-end chips to Nvidia.