Seoul, March 8 (IANS): Riding on strong sales of semiconductors, Samsung Electronics is likely to report a 30-per cent jump in its first-quarter operating profit, market data showed Wednesday.

According to a survey of earnings forecasts by market tracker FnGuide, Samsung is likely to post an operating profit of 8.7 trillion won ($7.5 billion) for the January-March quarter, up 30.6 per cent from the same quarter last year, Yonhap news agency reported.

January-March sales are likely to fall 0.3 per cent on year to 49.6 trillion won.

With demand for high-performance data storage devices growing, the operating profit from the semiconductor division of Samsung is expected to surpass five trillion won for the three-month period, analysts said.

Samsung is the world's largest maker of computer memory chips and flash memory chips for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Samsung is still reeling from the global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, which was discontinued in October last year over safety concerns.

But, analysts reckon that profits in Samsung's mobile division may recover in the first quarter.