Here's A List Of The Top 10 Hong Kong Companies Buying Back Their Shares In September

As Hong Kong markets have sold off hard over the past few months, corporate stock repurchases have surged to an all-time high.

On the Hong Kong Stock Exchange alone in September, companies repurchased HK$12.6 billion ($1.6 billion) of their own shares in 800 separate stock repurchase transactions. Many of these repurchases come on the back of declines of 10% or more for the year.

Stock repurchases can be a bullish proxy for investors since it implies that the company thinks its own shares are too cheap to resist scooping up.

The following is a summary of the top 10 stock repurchasers in Hong Kong during September using data collected from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (all amounts translated into USD):

• HSBC Holdings PLC (NYSE: HSBC) came in first place, repurchasing $409,217,026 of its shares back from the market. HSBC shares rose 5.6% last month as a result of the big buy-up and are up 25% this year.
• AIA Group Limited (OTC: AAGIY) was second place with $262,323,620 of stock purchases in Hong Kong during September. Despite the big buys, AIA has fallen 5.8% over the last month, and is down a massive 26% year-to-date.
• Tencent Holdings Limited (OTC: TCEHY) was in third as it bought back $171,823,860 cumulative value of shares in individual daily purchases in September while the stock plunged 9.8%, wiping out the year’s gains.
• Xiaomi Corporation (OTC: XIACF) made $98,160,452 of stock repurchases over the month, which helped the stock earn out about half its year-to-date gains. Xiaomi is up about 5% on the year.
• Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Limited bought back $61,156,160 of its shares which nevertheless plunged 8% on lower oil prices and friction for Chinese exporter stocks. The shares have fallen 25% year-to-date.
• Simcere Pharma Group Limited fell 1.5% last month despite making $41,502,760 worth of share repurchases, extending its massive 45% losses for the year-to-date period
• CK Asset Holdings Limited (OTC: CNGKY) repurchased $38,376,650 of shares in Hong Kong September. Still, CK Asset’s shares extended the year’s 16% losses, dropping 5.6% over the last month.
• Mobvista Inc. made $33,522,580 of stock buy-backs, while its shares fell 10% over the month in the broader market sell-off.
• Tianli International Holdings Limited fell 7.2% even as the company’s management spent $30,908,046 buying back its shares.
• Hong Kong Technology Venture Co Ltd dropped 10% as it bought back $10,718,693 of shares. The stock is now down 45% this year.

In US markets, four Chinese companies made stock repurchases, two of them substantial in size. Infrastructure play KE Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BEKE) spent $123,047,896 on ADR repurchases as its shares fell more than 13% in September, while Yum China Holdings Inc. (NYSE: YUMC) ended the month flat after snapping up $39,499,452 of its shares. Included in the Hong Kong share buy-back data, that puts KE Holdings and Yum China in 4th and 7th place among the island’s largest stock repurchasers in September, respectively.

Among smaller share repurchasers on US markets were Zhihu Inc. (NYSE: ZH), which spent $2,048,366 on share buy-backs and Tuya Inc. (NYSE: TUYA), repurchasing $957,361 of its shares.