SEOUL: South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor, the world's second largest memory chip maker, Friday announced a profit for the third quarter after seven straight quarters of losses.

Net profit was 246.3 billion won (207 million dollars) in July-September compared to a net loss of 1.67 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement which cited a faster than expected market recovery.

Operating profit was 209.3 billion won against a loss of 465 billion a year earlier. Sales rose 15 percent year-on-year to 2.118 trillion won.

All figures are on a consolidated basis, including ov