SK Hynix beat market forecasts to post a net profit of 178.7 billion won ($160 million) in the first quarter of this year on the back of rising demand for mobile DRAM chips, the company said Wednesday.

Operating profit also rose to 317 billion won, up from a 264 billion won deficit in the same period last year. Sales rose 16.4 percent to 2.78 trillion won.

SK Hynix shares rose 0.87 percent to close at 29,100 won on the day.

The market consensus for the company’s quarterly earnings had been at an average 223.1 billion won, indicating that the actual performance beat the forecasts by around 100 billion won.

SK Hynix said it was likely for the stellar performance to continue into the second quarter thanks to the consistently growing demand for the DRAM chips ― prices have been on the rise since December with no sign of falling. 

During a conference call, the chipmaker said the portion of dynamic random access memory chips for PCs reached more than 30 percent of its sales to outpace forecasts in the 20-percent range, while mobile DRAM accounted for over 20 percent.

“These figures are expected to be maintained in the second quarter as mobile DRAM grows to over 30 percent of the sales portfolio,” SK Hynix said.

Analysts also were positive about the company’s future prospects.

“High demand and better profit margins would lead to a similarly strong performance for the second quarter, with earnings rising above 700 billion won to once again beat the market forecasts,” said Nam Dae-jong, an analyst with Hana Daetoo Securities.

Fueling such rosy predictions was the scheduled launch of new mobile phones in the second quarter, coupled with the smartphone boom in China, which are together expected to fan the demand for mobile DRAM.

SK Hynix shares have been on a steady upward trend over the past several months, starting from around early February when prices reached the 23,000-won range.

Adding to the chipmaker’s attraction were recent comments from Samsung Electronics hinting that it was considering purchasing mobile memory chips from SK Hynix for some of its future products, including the latest Galaxy S4.

Samsung’s head of mobile business Shin Jong-kyun issued such hints, indicating Samsung may be adding an outside supplier: so far, most of the memory chips had been internally supplied.

The deal, if realized, would give SK Hynix a boost as it currently relies mostly on Apple to sell its mobile DRAM chips.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)