Samsung Hits New Record Amid Smartphone Fears

Samsung has reported another record quarterly profit, amid fears over flagging demand for expensive smartphones.

The South Korean tech giant, the world's largest technology firm by revenue, said its April-June profit after tax surged 49.7% year-on-year to 7.77 trillion won (£4.49bn).

The profit rise is based on robust shipments of its flagship Galaxy S smartphones and higher chip prices.

Second-quarter operating profit surged 47.5% on-year to 9.53 trn won (£5.56bn) in the same period as sales grew 20.7% on-year to 57.46 trn won (£33.56bn).

"Entering into a typically strong season for the IT industry, we expect earnings to continue to increase," Robert Yi, senior vice president, said.

But he warned: "We cannot overlook delayed economic recovery in Europe and risks from increased competition for smartphone and other set products."

However, Samsung's share price has been falling - wiping about £20bn off the firm's value - since late April when the flagship Galaxy S4 hit stores, as sales have not been as high as hoped.

That is despite the company spending billions on a global marketing campaign that has squeezed margins.

Samsung's share price fell 0.91% on Friday at the close in Seoul.

"Expectations had been too high for high-end smartphone sales. Many investors now think the Galaxy S4 has not been selling so well," Oh Young-Bo, of Hanmag Securities, said.

He added that investors are growing concerned as Samsung relies heavily on sales of smartphones to drive growth.

With an expected drop-off in demand for high-end phones, analysts began cutting their forecasts for profit and sales in June.

Samsung did not reveal smartphone shipments but it is thought to have sold about 75 million in the past quarter, some 760,000 a day, including around 20 million Galaxy S4s.

But while that helped Samsung maintain its status as the world's largest handset maker, the figure is only slightly up from the estimated 70 million shifted in the previous three months.

The easing of shipped units has suggested a slowdown in growth momentum.

That compares with Apple, which sold 31.2 million iPhones in April-June  - a record for the quarter - compared with 37.4 million in the previous three months, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

However, Apple's fiscal third-quarter results on Tuesday showed net profit plunged 22% year-on-year.

And while iPhone sales beat expectations, there are still fears for the high-end smartphone market as cheaper Android devices from China and emerging markets become more attractive options.

Samsung, Nokia Corp and HTC Corp are launching more affordable devices to diversify their product line-ups, although analysts have warned that such a move could hit their profit margins in the longer term.

ABI Research said Apple's global smartphone share was down to 13.1% from 16.6% a year ago - its lowest level since Q3 2009 - despite the market growing 52% in the same period.

Toyota Still Global Top Seller Amid Boycott

Toyota has shrugged off anti-Japanese sentiment in China to remain the world's top selling carmaker for the first half of this year.

It sold 4.91 million cars and trucks around the world for the January-June period - 26,830 vehicles daily.

Although the sales figure was down 1.2% from the previous year it still outpaced US rival General Motors (GM).

Earlier this month, GM revealed it sold 4.85 million vehicles worldwide in the six months, growing almost 4% as it gained US sales faster than Toyota.

For the second quarter alone, GM had a slight edge, outselling Toyota by about 10,000 vehicles.

GM was the top-selling manufacturer for seven decades before losing that title to the Japanese brand in 2008.

The American carmaker, which owns marques such as Chevrolet, Vauxhall, Opel, Pontiac and Hummer, retook the spot in 2011.

That was at a time when Toyota's plants were slowed by an earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan that wiped out parts suppliers.

Toyota has since recovered and was at the top again last year even as sales in China were hurt by boycotts of Japanese goods over a territorial dispute.

It has also suffered successive vehicle recalls over safety concerns.

The Japanese firm stayed ahead of GM in the first half of 2013 because of solid sales in other regions.

The maker of the Prius hybrid, Yaris and Verso also did better than expected in Japan, where the car market has been stagnant for years.

Volkswagen AG of Germany, which includes Audi, Porsche and Bentley, trailed Toyota and GM in the global race, selling 4.7 million vehicles during the first half of this year.

Yet it is posting strong growth in countries such as China, offsetting a bleak European market, and it is also determined to become the world's premier brand.

Toyota president Akio Toyoda said sales were not the only measure of excellence, and profitability, quality of workers and productivity were also significant.

"What truly defines being number one is an eternal pursuit for which there is never an answer," he said earlier this week.

Faulty Dreamliner Beacons Found In Japan

A Japanese airline has found damage to battery wiring on two Dreamliner emergency beacons, the same device suspected of causing a recent plane fire in London.

All Nippon Air (ANA) announced the discovery a day after the US aviation regulator issued an advisory telling carriers to check or replace the beacons on Boeing's troubled next generation aircraft, the 787.

"We have found small damage to the covering of the battery wiring in two emergency locator transmitters (ELT)," ANA spokesman Shinsuke Satake said.

The company, which operates the world's largest fleet of Dreamliners, will send the two ELTs back to the US manufacturer, Honeywell International.

Around a third of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner components are made in Japan and the country has the largest fleets of the plane.

One of the devices, which emit distress signals to help rescuers locate downed craft, had not yet been installed on a plane.

An Ethiopian Airlines 787 Dreamliner caught fire at London's Heathrow airport on July 12, forcing the airport to shut down for an hour-and-a-half.

Fire crews doused the aircraft and fire damage could be seen on the top of the rear part of the fuselage, in front of the tail fin.

British authorities recommended that the distress beacons onboard all Boeing Dreamliners be disabled after identifying the devices as the likely cause of the fire.

Boeing's troubled jet was also grounded for more than three months earlier this year after safety incidents involving the plane's lightweight lithium-ion batteries.

Despite spending thousands of man-hours investigating the battery fault, Boeing was unable to ascertain the exact cause.

Instead, the plane maker decided on beefing up the housings to prevent further fires in the auxiliary power units.

A number of other issues have hit the global fleet but Boeing recently said it had full faith in the future of the composite construction aircraft.

:: A 787 operated by Air India suffered an overheated oven earlier this week during a domestic flight.

Sainsbury's Stunned As Tesco Wins ASA Battle

Tesco will next week score a victory over one of its bitterest rivals when advertising regulators reject a complaint from J Sainsbury that sparked a war of words between the two companies.

Sky News can reveal that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) will on Wednesday dismiss Sainsbury's challenge to a series of Tesco advertisements which claimed that its own-label products were cheaper than those of its competitors.

The ruling will deliver a blow to Sainsbury's and its chief executive, Justin King, who was publicly critical of Tesco's marketing campaign, arguing that it misled millions of British shoppers.

The ASA has been investigating the complaint for nearly four months and is understood to have taken detailed legal advice about the merits of Sainsbury's case, repeatedly seeking new information from both companies during the process.

The regulator's ruling will mark a temporary ceasefire in one of the angriest disputes between the two chains for many years.

Tesco's victory is, though, likely to spark a renewed advertising conflict between the two chains, which spend tens of millions of pounds each year promoting themselves on television, in newspapers, online and on billboards.

Britain's biggest retailer is expected to run ads after the ruling emerges next week.

Sainsbury's complaint to the ASA centred on separate advertising campaigns being run simultaneously by Tesco, one of which focused on the importance of the provenance of its food products in the wake of this year's horsemeat scandal.

Tesco found itself at the centre of the contamination crisis, with some of its products containing large quantities of horsemeat, leading Philip Clarke, its chief executive, to pledge an overhaul of its supply chain.

Sainsbury's is said to have argued that it was dishonest of Tesco to claim that provenance was crucial to customers' food preferences and at the same time run another marketing blitz comparing the own-label products of different supermarket chains.

The latter campaign, called Price Promise and which involved Tesco issuing money-off vouchers after comparing rivals' prices without taking account of sourcing or ethical credentials, caused controversy throughout the grocery retailing sector, with Wm Morrison also threatening to lodge an ASA complaint.

Mr King's chain prides itself on the ethical sourcing and high-quality nature of its own-brand products, making it invidious, Sainsbury's argued, for Tesco to compare them with its own lower-quality ranges.

The ASA is now expected to judge that the campaigns were separate and that it was therefore legitimate for Tesco to compare own-label products that were not entirely alike.

"We have exhausted everything we could with them [Tesco], so were left with no choice but to go to the ASA," Mr King said in May.

"You can't have advertising saying that where your chicken comes from is important, while at the same time still sourcing your chicken from Thailand and Brazil, and then doing a price comparison with Sainsbury's chicken, which is sourced from the UK. That is inherently unfair."

It is unclear whether Sainsbury's plans to appeal against the ASA's ruling. The regulator does allow complainants to challenge its adjudications although it rarely overturns them.

Barclays Faces Fresh Customer Mis-Selling Bill

Barclays will face up to mis-selling misdemeanours on three fronts next week when it sets aside hundreds of millions of pounds more for historical malpractice.

Sky News understands that the bank will make provisions for compensation for customers who were mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI), interest rate derivatives and identity theft cover through the stricken credit card insurer CPP.

Insiders said this weekend that Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins had been told by its regulators to be "conservative" in topping up its previous £2.6bn provision for PPI and an £850m bill for mis-selling swap products - designed to insure customers against sharp interest rate movements - to small businesses.

Barclays directors are also understood to have discussed taking its first hit for compensating CPP customers at a board meeting this week.

The final bill will be signed off by Mr Jenkins, Sir David Walker, the bank's chairman, and the soon-to-depart finance director Chris Lucas on Monday.

A Barclays spokesman declined to comment on the size of the new compensation figures but it is understood that they will take the amount it has set aside for swaps mis-selling to well over £1bn.

The scale of the new provisions will partly explain why Barclays is also planning to announce a major capital-raising comprising conventional shares and contingent convertible (or 'coco') bonds alongside its results.

That follows pressure from the Prudential Regulation Authority for Barclays to meet a target measuring the strength of its balance sheet, called the leverage ratio, by the end of next year.

The announcement will be made as part of Barclays' half-year results on Tuesday, and could undermine Mr Jenkins' efforts to overhaul the bank's reputation following last summer's Libor rate-rigging scandal.

Barclays was fined £290m for its role in the affair, leading to the departure of Mr Jenkins' predecessor, Bob Diamond.

It was also recently hit with a £300m penalty by a US energy regulator for attempting to manipulate electricity prices, although the bank is appealing against it.

Barclays will not be the only lender to add to its PPI mis-selling provisions during next week's results, with Lloyds Banking Group and others also expected to belie suggestions that the tidal wave of compensation claims had abated.

Barclays has, though, been particularly affected by the way interest is calculated on PPI compensation claims because of its liabilities dating back many years.

Mr Jenkins will also spell out the progress of his overhaul of the bank, called Transform, in which he will say that Barclays is exceeding cost-reduction targets announced in February.

Barclays declined to comment.

Oxford Shooting: Woman In Serious Condition

A woman is in a serious condition in hospital in Oxford after being shot in the early hours of this morning.

Paramedics were called to Crowberry Road, in the Blackbird Leys area of Oxford by Thames Valley Police officers at 5.15am today, South Central Ambulance Service said.

The "middle-aged" woman was taken to the city's John Radcliffe Hospital with "serious but not life-threatening" injuries, an ambulance service spokesman said.

A 21-year-old man from Oxford has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder in connection with the shooting, Thames Valley Police said.

Two other men, aged 26 and 40 and also from the city, have been arrested on suspicion of affray. All three are in custody.

The victim, who is in her 40s, is in a stable condition in hospital, a force spokesman said.

South Central Ambulance spokesman James Keating-Wilkes said she was “concious and breathing”.

Detective Inspector John Turner, who is leading the investigation, said: "I would like to reassure the local community that incidents such as these are extremely rare.

"Police officers and PCSOs will be undertaking extra patrols in the area to provide a reassurance to the community of Blackbird Leys.

"I would urge anyone with any information about the incident to contact the police immediately."

China: Video Shows Car Hit By Landslide

Video of a car almost being washed away by floods and a landslide in northwest China has been released.

The footage shows the driver trying to get away from the deluge, but changing his mind when he realises what is happening.

All the car's occupants escaped unhurt.

Almost a million people have been affected by flooding in the region since the start of July.