Samsung to buy back 2 billion worth of shares

Shares of South Korean tech giant Samsung opened sharply higher on Thursday on the news that it will buy back $2 billion of its own stock.Samsung shares were up 5.8 percent as of 0002 GMT after opening 6 percent higher. Samsung announced the buyback plan, its first since 2007, after market close on Wednesday.Earlier reports suggest that Samsung was making a loss in sales but it was yet making a lot more money than many rivals. Samsung has posted its worst quarterly earnings since 2012 and even lost its top positions in India as well as China, but in spite of the loses it still makes more money than most of the companies.Though Xiaomi and Micromax have surpassed Samsung sales figures in China and India respectively, Samsung is making more money than both companies. In fact, in India, it still holds the top position for smartphone sales. The company now requires to restructure its pricing to make a comeback in the budget segment.Recently, Samsung won the licence to invest $3 billion in Vietnam mobile phone plant. The licence was awarded on Nov. 17 in Thai Nguyen province, where Samsung has been operating a $2 billion smartphone plant, the government said in a statement issued late on Monday, without giving further details of the project.With inputs from Reuters