With voting complete and a result expected imminently, shares in both dropped sharply in Seoul exchange trading, falling as much as 8 percent, before rallying strongly.

At 0321 GMT, shares in Samsung C&T were up 0.4 percent at 69,600 won, while Cheil's stock was down 0.5 percent at 193,000.

(Reporting by Yeawon Choi; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

Stocks treated in this article : Samsung C&T, Cheil Industries Inc