Samsung Electronics predicts a 10 percent jump in quarterly profit, helped by the robust early sales of its new Galaxy S7 smartphones. Samsung said January-March operating profit was likely 6.6 trillion won ($5.7 billion).

The company will not disclose a full breakdown of its results until late April, and gave no comment on the performance of its business divisions.

The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones come with improved batteries and are water and dust resistant. The company also brought back the micro SD card slot that had disappeared in the Galaxy S6 series.

But still, competition from new products such as Apple's recently launched iPhone SE and Huawei's new flagship P9 phone are tempering investor enthusiasm, who believe that Samsung's first quarter earnings will be the peak this year.

Samsung's actual earnings report is set to be delivered later this month.