Half of South Korea's top 10 business groups saw their third-quarter sales dip, hit by a protracted slump at home and abroad, industry data showed Thursday.

The combined sales of 67 listed companies affiliated with the country's top 10 conglomerates, which settle accounts every December, were tallied at 242.69 trillion won ($208 billion) during the July-September period, down 4.68 percent from 254.6 trillion won a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange.

The pace of decline is larger than the average 2.79 percent on-year dip in sales logged by 511 listed firms, the data showed.

The data showed that some half of the surveyed firms suffered a decline in their third-quarter sales.

By group, energy and telecom conglomerate SK Group suffered the largest fall of 3.69 trillion won in its sales during the third quarter, followed by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. with 2.51 trillion won, Samsung Group with 2.5 trillion won and Hyundai Motor Group with 1.99 trillion won.

Among the firms suffering a sales decline were Samsung Electronics Co., the country's top firm by value, which saw its sales dip to 47.42 trillion won during the third quarter from 51.68 trillion won a year earlier, reeling from the production termination of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7, over a battery problem.

SK Innovation Co., the country's top oil refiner, also suffered a decline of 2.74 trillion won in its third-quarter sales, the data showed.

"Key sectors, such as electronics, automaking and steelmaking, suffered a drawn-out slump," said Lee Jong-woo, an analyst at IBK Investment & Securities. "That's why the overall earnings score was poorer than expected." (Yonhap)