Share buybacks crashed 51.11% to $26.4m in January

OCBC led the buying spree with $13.89m shares bought back.

The Singapore Exchange (SGX) revealed that 21 SGX primary-listed stocks welcomed the year by buying back 30 million shares worth $26.4m in total. With this, buyback considerations in January dropped 51.85% YoY from $54m in January 2018 and 66.15% down from the $78m worth of shares bought back in December.

OCBC led the buying spree for the month with a total buyback consideration of $13.89m. In 2018, the bank joined CapitaLand, DBS, UOB, and Keppel in making up 80% of total buyback consideration for the whole year.

Also read: Singapore's big banks are on a buying spree as share buybacks hit $116.5m

Also joining the stock shopping galore are Keppel REIT ($2.95m), Silverlake Axis ($2.94m), Venture ($1.58m), and Singapore Post ($1.49m).

SGX noted that some firms started new buyback mandates, including Silverlake Axis with 6.9% of its shares bought back on the previous mandate.

In 2018, total buybacks made by 100 stocks more than tripled to $1.53b from a buyback consideration of $426m in 2017.