Korea's 81 business groups posted a 46 percent on-year jump in their combined operating profit last year, helped by strong results on the part of leading players, a local corporate monitoring website said Wednesday.

As of Friday, businesses that have released their preliminary earnings reports and are among the country's 100 largest conglomerates posted 155.06 trillion won ($143 billion) in operating profit on sales of 1,525.25 trillion won, CEO Score said in a statement.

Operating profits surged 45.8 percent, with sales gaining 11.7 percent.

Their average net profit also soared 49 percent on-year to 121.69 trillion won last year as chip giants Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc. reported robust earnings results, it said.

The country's largest information technology and electronic companies in terms of market capitalization fared well last year. On the other hand, the findings showed carmakers and auto parts companies suffering sharp declines in profits due to a diplomatic row between Seoul and Beijing over the installation of a US anti-missile system called THAAD last year.

THAAD-driven political tensions resulted in a plunge in sales of Korean vehicles and other products in China, Korea's biggest trading partner.(Yonhap)