(Yicai Global) Sept. 15 -- In an attempt to buoy their stock prices, 1,000 firms listed in the Chinese mainland have spent more than CNY133 billion (USD20.7 billion) repurchasing their shares so far this year, exceeding the CNY104.3 billion spent on buybacks in the whole of last year.

Companies such as home appliance giants Gree Electric Appliances and Midea Group have bought up their own stock mainly to keep sliding market caps at a reasonable level.

Gree recently completed a CNY15 billion (USD2.3 billion) buyback, the biggest of the year. It bought 316 million shares in less than four months, accounting for 5.3 percent of its total equity. It was Gree’s third straight buyback since last April, bringing the total outlay to CNY27 billion.

But the action has not stopped a slide in Gree’s shares. Its stock price [SHE:000651] dropped to CNY38.99 (USD6.06) today from a record high of CNY66.80 on Dec. 2, a decline of 31 percent.

“The market has switched quickly this year,” a Shanghai-based private equity fund manager told Yicai Global. “The cyclical and technology sectors have grown steadily, while stocks on the SSE 50 and CSI 100 indexes continued to decline in small fluctuations.”

Midea ranked second after Gree for buybacks, with its total spend reaching CNY8.7 billion (USD1.4 billion) this year. The company announced another CNY5 billion (USD785,000) round on May 31. Its shares [SHE:000333] closed at CNY66.52 today, after dropping over 35 percent from an all-time high of CNY105.90 (USD16.45) in February.

“While Gree and Midea were carrying out their buyouts, northbound funds were reducing their holdings in the firms, creating a loop,” the fund manager said. “Big repurchases can hardly support falling stock prices when the extreme market style becomes dominant.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione