Samsung Electronics stock surged 1.4 percent to a record high Monday amid an expected global boom in NAND flash chips, widely used in removable storage and handheld communications devices.

"Samsung Electronics is considering signing contracts to supply NAND flash chips to major companies, including Sony," the firm said in a statement, adding it has yet to reach concrete deals.

But it did not confirm a news report that Sony had asked Samsung to supply NAND flash chips for its new MP3 players next year.

Samsung said last month it won a long-term contract worth 500 million dollars to supply NAND flash memory chips to Apple, the maker of iPod music players, until 2010.

Global demand is growing for such chips, which are widely used in music players, digital cameras and mobile phones because they can retain data even after power is switched off.

Samsung, which supplies more than half the world's NAND flash chips, is battling Japanese and US rivals in the competitive and fast growing global market.

Intel and Micron agreed last month to launch a joint venture, IM Flash Technologies LLC, mainly to make NAND flash memory chips. Each firm is to invest 1.2 billion dollars.

Samsung Electronics surged 9,000 won (8.9 dollars) to close at 654,000 Monday, helping push the benchmark KOSPI to a new closing high of 1,367.57.

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