• In November, 33 primary-listed stocks on SGX bought back their shares, with a total consideration of S$275 million, up from 32 companies conducting S$86 million in buybacks in October, coinciding with the STI generating a 4.6% decline in total return in November, bringing its 2021 YTD total return to 10.4%.
   
• Secondary-listed Jardine Matheson and Hongkong Land also continued to conduct buybacks in November, reducing their respective number of issued ordinary shares by 0.4% and 0.5%. Jardine Matheson paid between US$60.00 and US$56.849 for its shares, while Hongkong Land Holdings paid between US$5.765 and US$5.40 for its shares.
   
• CapitaLand Investment, OCBC and Wilmar International led the buyback consideration tally for primary listings in November. Wing Tai again led the buyback consideration of non-STI stocks, repurchasing over 3.0 million shares at an average price of S$1.90 per share, after repurchasing 2.5 million shares at S$1.91 per share in October.

During November, 33 primary-listed stocks on SGX bought back their shares, with a total consideration of S$$274.8 million. This was the highest monthly buyback consideration tally since March 2020. This brings the total consideration filed by the primary-listed stocks to S$970 million for the first 11 months of 2021, which represents 0.15% of the total market value of all primary-listed stocks listed on SGX. Of the total S$888.4 billion in market capitalisation of all stocks listed on SGX at the end of November, S$635.1 billion was represented by primary-listed stocks. November’s primary-listed buyback consideration of S$274.8 million compared to 32 primary-listed stocks buying back their shares in October with a total consideration of S$85.7 million (click here for more).

Secondary-listed Jardine Matheson Holdings and Hongkong Holdings Land also bought back shares in November. As Jardine Matheson Holdings and Hongkong Land Holdings do not hold treasury shares, this reduced their respective number of issued ordinary shares by 0.4% and 0.5% over the course of the month. Jardine Matheson Holdings saw its issued shares reduced to 718,780,748 shares as of 30 Nov, from 721,755,371 shares as of 29 Oct, while Hongkong Land Holdings’ issued shares were reduced to 2,305,169,230 shares as of 30 Nov, from 2,317,162,430 shares as of 29 Oct. Jardine Matheson Holdings paid between US$60.00 and US$56.849 for its shares in November, while Hongkong Land Holdings paid between US$5.765 and US$5.40 for its shares in November.

The STI declined 4.9% in November to 3,041.29, returning to levels last traded on 22 Sep at the 30 Nov close. This was the STI’s biggest monthly price decline since the 17.3% decline in May 2020. Dividend distributions in November trimmed the STI’s decline in total return for the month to 4.6%, which brought the year to date total return to 10.4%. The key driver for the Index decline was the trio of Banks that make up more than 40% of the STI. Globally, Banks along with Airlines, Hospitality and Energy stocks were among the least performing industries across the globe in November. The combined AUM of the SPDR® Straits Times Index ETF and the Nikko AM Singapore STI ETF ended November 2021 at S$2.15 billion, compared to S$2.08 billion at the end of December 2020, with the unit creations and redemptions generating S$79 million of net outflows into the two ETFs over the past 11 months.

CapitaLand Investment, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and Wilmar International led the buyback consideration tally for the primary-listed stocks in November. CapitaLand Investment and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation have purchased a similar percentage of their issued shares (excluding treasury shares) since the date of their relevant share buyback resolutions.

Wing Tai Holdings again led the buyback consideration of non-STI stocks in November, repurchasing over 3.0 million shares at an average price of S$1.90 per share, after repurchasing 2.5 million shares at S$1.91 per share in October. The property and lifestyle company has now bought back 0.71% of its issued shares (excluding treasury shares) shares since the most recent buyback mandate was approved on 26 October. 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 33 primary-listed stocks that conducted buybacks in November. 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 30 November 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.