South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of memory chips and smartphones, beat market expectations in the second quarter with robust operating profit of 8.1 trillion won ($7 billion), up 21.3 percent from the previous quarter in its best performance in nearly two years as favorable foreign exchange condition further helped sales of its products ranging from smartphones and home appliances to semiconductors.

According to the April-June earnings guidance, Samsung reported operating profit of 8.1 trillion won, beating earlier market consensus of 7.4 trillion won and its 6.7 trillion won income in the previous quarter.

Sales rose to 50 trillion won in the second quarter from 49.8 trillion won in the previous quarter and 48.5 trillion won in the same quarter in 2015.

As of 11:31 a.m. Samsung Electronics stock price rose to 1,436,000 won ($1,239.32) from Wednesday closing of 1,421,00 won.

The company’s profit has been slipping after peaking to 10.2 trillion won in the third quarter of 2013 as it lost dominant presence in the smartphone market, particularly in China. In the fourth quarter of 2014, its profit shriveled to 4 trillion won range.

The revival of the mobile division fueled growth in the second quarter. Analysts estimate the company has pulled in more than 4 trillion won profit from the mobile division. Its new flagship Galaxy S7 series released in March were sold over 1.6 million units in the second quarter and 1 million in the first. The cheaper smartphone models A and J series also were steady sellers.

The consumer electronics division is estimated to have raked in a profit of near 1 trillion won thanks to demand in the global TV market ahead of the Euro 2016 soccer game that started last month and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil coming up in August. Profit improved due to robust sales in high-end products.

Favorable exchange conditions added to the appeal over Samsung brands and profit in the company’s balance sheet. The U.S. dollar that averaged 1,099 won in the first half of 2015 shot up to an average 1,182.2 won in the first six months of this year. Volatilities ahead and after the June 23 British vote to decide to leave the European Union strengthened the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen as foreign capital shifted to safer assets.

Analysts predict the company’s better-than-expected earnings had been largely owed to weaker won, benefiting up to 800 billion won.

The company nevertheless performed well throughout all core product line.

Samsung kept up profitability in chip-making even as memory chip prices tumbled by bringing down production cost through fab upgrade.

The average price of dynamic random access memory came down to $1.25 from $2.69 in late June last year. The company timely shifted to cost-effective next-generation fab through the application of 10 nano-class chip-making technology and become the only company to produce highly lucrative 3D V-NAND (vertical non-volatile storage) flash memory chip.

It also quickly veered the display division away from liquid crystal display (LCD) that lacked competitiveness from overcapacity due to expansion by Chinese rivals towards more profitable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels. The division is estimated to have earned from 200 billion won to 300 billion won in the second quarter.

Samsung Electronics’ fast move towards new business by focusing on 3D NAND flash memory in the semiconductor business and OLED helped the company to keep up its edge, said Kwon Sung-ryul, an analyst at Dongbu Securities.

By Lee Seung-hoon

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