SEOUL (AP): Samsung Electronics Co. announced quarterly earnings estimates for the first time Monday, saying it hopes to reduce market confusion and speculation about its performance.

The Suwon, South Korea-based corporation said it expects consolidated sales of between 31 trillion won ($24.46 billion) and 33 trillion won for the three months ended June 30.

The company, the world's biggest manufacturer of memory chips and second-largest maker of mobile phones, estimated operating profit would come it at between 2.2 trillion won and 2.6 trillion won.

Investors reacted positively. Samsung's shares rose 5.3 percent to 633,000 won in afternoon trading.

Samsung does not release a quarterly consolidated net profit figure and issued no estimate for that. Samsung's announcement also included no estimates for its earnings on a parent basis, which include net profit.

Company spokesman James Chung said consolidated net profit is reported only on an annual basis.

Samsung said in a release that it plans to continue providing earnings estimates within several days following the end of each quarter.

``Samsung believes that growing interest in the company's quarterly earnings and competing forecasts have led to more confusion in the market ahead of the recent earnings release announcements,'' the company said.

Samsung added that it expects the move will ``help not only minimize speculations in the market but also help enhance company transparency and provide investors with a more accurate expectation of the earnings. ``

The company had a net profit of 619.20 billion won on a parent basis in the three months ended March 31, down 72 percent from the same period the year before. Sales rose 8.5 percent to 18.57 trillion won.

The company said it plans to announce second-quarter earnings on July 24.