• In October, 32 primary-listed stocks on SGX bought back their shares, with a total consideration of S$86 million, up from 20 companies conducting buybacks in September, but with a lower consideration than the S$134 million in repurchases in September.
   
• Secondary-listed Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson Holdings also bought back more than S$100 million in shares in October, with Hongkong Land repurchasing 12,310,950 shares at US$4.79 to US$5.45 per share, while Jardine Matheson Holdings repurchased 687,789 shares, paying between US$51.79 to US$58.00 per share.
   
• Wing Tai led the buyback consideration of non-STI stocks, repurchasing close to 2.5 million stocks across three sessions at an average price of S$1.91. The property and lifestyle company also rallied 7.2% during the month, outpacing global real estate stocks which generated a marginal decline.

During October, 32 primary-listed stocks on SGX bought back their shares, with a total consideration of S$85.7 million. This brings the total consideration filed by the primary-listed stocks to S$695 million for the first 10 months of 2021, which represents 0.1% of the total market value of all primary-listed stocks listed on SGX. Of the total S$914.2 billion in market capitalisation of all stocks listed on SGX at the end of October, S$661.8 billion was represented by primary-listed stocks. October’s primary-listed buyback consideration of S$85.7 million compared to 20 SGX primary-listed stocks buying back their shares in September with a total consideration of S$134 million (click here for more).

Secondary-listed Hongkong Land and Jardine Matheson Holdings also bought back shares in October. Hongkong Land bought back 12,310,950 shares over the month, paying between US$4.79 per share and US$5.4498 per share, with the latter price an average price of an off-market repurchase. Jardine Matheson Holdings also bought back 687,789 shares, paying between US$51.79 per share and US$58.00 per share. Hongkong Land was the STI’s strongest performer in October, while Jardine Matheson Holdings was the fourth strongest STI stock for the month. The total consideration of the buybacks of the two companies was above S$100 million.

The 3.6% STI gain in October brought its total return over the past 10 months to 15.7%. As discussed here, overarching market drivers in October included global progress in containing COVID-19, the global growth outlook remaining largely intact for 2021 and 2022, while rising commodity prices, supply disruptions and the continued local focus on strategic corporate restructuring also provided market cues. The combined AUM of the SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF ended October 2021 at S$2.31 billion, compared to S$2.08 billion at the end of December 2020, with the unit creations and redemptions generating S$29 million of net outflows into the two ETFs over the past 10 months.

United Overseas Bank and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp led the buyback considerations of primary-listed STI stocks in October, repurchasing shares at an average price of S$26.30 and S$11.66 respectively. Wing Tai Holdings led the buyback consideration of non-STI stocks, repurchasing close to 2.5 million stocks at an average price of S$1.91. The property and lifestyle company also rallied 7.2% during the month, outpacing global real estate stocks which generated a marginal decline. The new buyback mandate was approved on 26 October, and over three sessions Wing Tai Holdings bought back 0.32% of its issued shares (excluding treasury shares).  In the preceding two buyback mandates, Wing Tai Holdings bought back 0.15% of its shares and 1.01% per cent of its shares.

The table below summarises the buyback transactions of the 32 primary-listed stocks that conducted buybacks in October. The table is sorted by the value of the total consideration amount for the month, which combines the amount of shares or units purchased and the purchasing price of the transactions.

 Source: SGX, Bloomberg (Data as of 29 October 2021)

Share buyback transactions involve share issuers repurchasing some of their outstanding shares from shareholders through the open market. Once the shares are bought back, they can be converted into treasury shares, which means they are no longer categorised as shares outstanding. Motivations for share buybacks can include employee compensation plans (such as share option schemes or employee share purchase plans) or long term capital management. Buybacks have been observed to also pick up amidst market declines that are driven by broader moves on international macroeconomic developments.

Share buyback information can be found on the company disclosure page on the SGX website, using the Announcement category and sub-category of Share Buy Back-On Market (click here). As best practice, companies should refrain from buying back their shares during the two weeks immediately before semi-annual financial statements and one month immediately before the full-year financial statements.