Samsung Electronics shares fell as much as 7.1% after the company announced a shareholder return plan centered on cash dividends with no share buyback component. The decline later narrowed to 6.57%, while South Korea's Kospi fell 1.4%, Japan's Nikkei 225 slipped 0.4% and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.2%, led by technology stocks. Samsung said Friday that it plans to return up to 110 trillion won, or approximately $80 billion, to investors this year, including 30 trillion won in cash dividends during the third quarter. Other arrangements will be finalized at a board meeting in January next year. JPMorgan analyst Jay Kwon said the plan failed to deliver positive surprises, citing the third-quarter commitment, the absence of buybacks and an unchanged shareholder return ratio of 50% of cumulative free cash flow. The market had expected more aggressive capital allocation as AI investment accelerates. Broader sentiment is also being shaped by Nvidia's planned price increases for Vera Rubin and Grace Blackwell systems, Alibaba's HK$80 billion share sale to support its global AI ambitions, trade tensions, falling oil prices and uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's policy outlook. The report's conclusion is that Samsung's conservative plan has widened the gap between its capital allocation strategy and investor expectations, while the January delay adds to near-term uncertainty.