Korean listed firms’ cash dividend paid out to their shareholders shrank 7.2 percent in 2011 from a year earlier, largely due to a decrease in the payouts by top-cap Samsung Electronics Co., data showed Thursday.

The combined cash dividend paid out by 224 firms listed on the main bourse stood at 8.83 trillion won ($7.82 billion) in the 2011 fiscal year as of Feb. 21, compared with 9.52 trillion won in the previous fiscal year, according to the data by the Korea Exchange.

The cited firms include those that close their books on Dec. 31 and posted cash dividends for the past two straight years.

The average dividend rate came in at 2.35 percent, up 0.16 percentage point from the previous year, the KRX said.

The cash dividend paid out to foreigners totaled 3.22 trillion won in the cited period, down 10.56 percent from 3.61 trillion won tallied in 2011.

The decline came as Samsung Electronics Co., the biggest by the market capitalization, cut its interim dividend last year by 10 percent, or to 500 won from 5,000 won per share, which led to a loss worth around 700 billion won overall, an official at the KRX said.

By sector, telecom companies topped in the value of the dividend with 402.7 billion won, followed by financial firms at 203.1 billion won and tech players at 94.7 billion won.

Samsung Electronics Co. paid out the highest amount of 827.2 billion won, trailed by leading steelmaker POSCO with 772.4 billion won and a major mobile carrier, SK Telecom, paying 656.5 billion won, the data showed. (Yonhap News)