UPDATE - Samsung Elec rises 3 pct on share buyback talk (at Reuters)

SEOUL, July 24 (Reuters) - Shares in Samsung Electronics (005930.KS: ) rose more than 3 percent on Thursday after talk that the world's No.1 memory chip maker would announce share buyback plans at Friday's scheduled quarterly results announcement. "There is a good chance that Samsung Electronics will unveil share buyback plans tomorrow, as their share prices have suffered steep falls during the latest bearish run," said Suh Do-won, an analyst at Hanwha Securities. Shares in Samsung, also the world's leading LCD display maker and No. 2 mobile phone manufacturer, had fallen more than 20 percent since mid-May as of Wednesday's closing. They were up 3.41 percent to 607,000 won by 0233 GMT, leading the wider market's 1.86 percent gain. "The buyback size will likely be around 1 trillion won ($991 million)," Suh added. A Samsung... [read full story]