Samsung shares plummet following Note 7 recall

£10.8bn wiped off firm's value after battery fire fiasco

Samsung's share price has plummeted today, after the firm told customers to return its faulty Galaxy Note 7 handsets due to their tendency to catch fire while charging.

The company saw £10.8bn wiped from its value as investors hurried to sell stock. At the time of writing, Samsung shares are trading at $653.25 on the London Stock Exchange, their lowest level in just under two months.

Bloomberg earlier predicted that the handset issue could cost the firm around £750m, however this didn't include the hit to Samsung's market capitalisation.

Although the share price has plummeted today, its value has been growing steadily since May, when it reached a low of $530. It still has a long way to fall before it reaches that level.

On Saturday Samsung issued a recall notice for the handset, advising customers to switch off their new Galaxy Note 7s, which the firm promised to replace after 19 September.

"For customers who already have Galaxy Note 7 devices, we now ask that you power down your device and return to using your previous phone. We will voluntarily replace your Galaxy Note 7 device with a new one," the firm stated in its official notice.

The issue first came to light in late August, when a man in China shared photos of a badly burned handet that he claimed was a Galaxy Note 7, which had allegedly caught fire while charging.

Since then, several videos appeared on YouTube, with other users claiming similar experiences. Samsung later said it was investigating the problem, finally admitting that it had discovered an "isolated battery cell issue".

"Because our customers' safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note 7," the firm added in its recall notice.