Apple bites $12 bn off Samsung shares

Samsung Electronics shares tumbled around 7 percent on Monday, wiping $12 billion off the South Korean giant's market value, as a sweeping victory for Apple Inc in a U.S. patent lawsuit raised concerns about its smartphone business - its biggest cash cow.

Samsung, which says it will contest the verdict, was ordered to pay $1.05 billion in damages after a California jury found it had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and could face an outright sales ban on key products.

There are still too many variables including the final ruling to come at least a month from the recent verdict, and whether there will be a sales ban on Samsung's main sellers such as the Galaxy S3, said a fund manager at a Korean asset management company that was one of the biggest institutional holders of Samsung's stock as of end-March.

Shares in Samsung - the world's biggest technology firm by revenue - tumbled as much as 7.7 percent, its biggest daily percentage drop in nearly four years, to 1.177 million Korean won ($1,000), versus a 0.2 percent drop in the broader market.

Trading volume was heavy, more than doubling last week's daily average by early Monday trade.

In the most closely watched patent trial in years, the jury at a federal court in San Jose, California, just miles from Apple's headquarters, found that Samsung infringed on six of seven Apple patents.

The

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