More than half of South Korea’s major listed firms have suffered earnings shocks as they missed profit forecasts for the fourth quarter of 2015, stoking concerns that the country’s sluggish economy may further deteriorate amid the protracted global slowdown. 

According to FnGuide, a financial information provider, out of 75 major companies listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ indexes, 38 firms logged earnings shocks.

An earnings shock occurs when a company reports quarterly or annual profits below analysts’ expectations by more than 10 percent.

“Disappointing earnings reports are coming on the heels of another slew of lackluster earnings from major conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor,” Hyundai Securities’ researcher Yoon Jung-sun said.

The nation‘s export heavyweights in the steel, information technology and car sectors logged earnings and revenues that missed expectations during the October-December period due to the sluggish global demand.

Korea’s third-largest oil refiner S-Oil swung to profit from an operating loss of 240 billion won ($197 million) by posting an operating profit of 17 billion won, but this compares with average analyst projections for profits to the tune of 152.7 billion won.

Steelmaker POSCO is among the firms that missed local brokerages’ forecasts with the biggest gap, posting operating profits of 340.5 billion won, down 33.6 percent from 512.5 billion won in analysts’ average estimates.

Samsung Heavy Industries secured an operating income of 29.9 billion won, but still fell short of average analyst projections of 44.8 billion won.

Earnings of LG Display, LG Innotech and Kia Motors lagged analysts’ consensus by 21.7 percent, 32.9 percent and 15.2 percent, according to data.

Blue chip companies Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor also disappointed investors with lackluster quarterly results.

Hurt by its sluggish chip, display and mobile businesses, Samsung suffered a bigger-than-expected decline in quarterly earnings with an operating income of 6.1 trillion won.

To add to their woes, analysts are expecting worsening economic conditions for this year due to external factors, such as the U.S. interest hike and slowdown in China that can dampen the outlook for the export-oriented economy.

“It is widely known that this year’s economic condition will be dimmer than last year, given global growth outlook which has been revised down, China’s economic growth, which dipped below 7 percent, and slowdown in infrastructure industries such as shipping and steel sectors,” Yoon said.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)