These 5 Hong Kong Companies Bought Back Around 0.1% Of All Their Shares In Issue Last Week

Last week was a quiet trading week in Hong Kong, with just half the normal daily volumes traded as a result of a 7-day national holiday in China.

Still, some companies took the opportunity to repurchase their own shares, many of which are suffering from a sharp sell-off as part of a broad decline among China stocks this year.

Corporate stock repurchases are often seen as a bullish proxy for investors since it indicates a company’s management thinks the shares are too cheap to resist snapping up.

The following are top 5 stock repurchasers in Hong Kong in order of the largest first (all amounts converted into USD):

• Tencent Holdings Limited (TCEHY) spent by far the largest sum of money on its stock, making $208 million of share purchases, hoovering up 0.05% of all its shares in issue
• HSBC plc (NYSE: HSBC) repurchased $91 million of its shares on the open market, which is around 0.06% of its total market capitalization
• Insurer AIA Group Limited (OTC: AAGIY) made $70 million of stock repurchases, buying up 0.07% of all its stock in issue
• Xiaomi Corporation (OTC: XIACY) spent $20 million, buying back 0.05% of its total market capitalization
• Real estate developer ESR GROUP Limited (OTC: ESRGF) bucked the trend of most Hong Kong property firms and although it only spent $4 million it repurchased nearly 0.1% of all its shares in issue

On US exchanges, $19 billion infrastructure firm KE Holdings Inc (NYSE: BEKE) and $220 billion tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) also made similarly large purchases of their own ADRs.