(Yicai Global) Jan. 4 -- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings headed the list of companies traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that bought back their own shares last year, with repurchases by listed firms almost tripling to an all-time high.

Hong Kong-listed firms spent HKD102.9 billion (USD13.2 billion) on share buybacks in 2022, versus HKD38.1 billion (USD4.9 billion) in the prior year, according to financial data platform Choice. Tencent accounted for over HKD33.7 billion after repurchasing 91 million shares. Insurer AIA Group was second with a HKD27.2 billion outlay.

Some 220 companies turned to buybacks, which remove some of a firm’s shares from the market, to help buoy their stock prices as Chinese markets sank amid a correction in global risk assets.

Hong Kong’s three major indexes fell more than 15 percent last year, with the Hang Seng Tech Index [HKG: 3032] plunging as much as 27.3 percent. Tencent’s shares [HKG: 0700] dived under HKD200 (USD25.59), after peaking at HKD773 in 2021. 

Tencent, AIA, HSBC Holdings, Xiaomi, Great Wall Motors, and five others bought over HKD1 billion (USD128 million) each of their own shares, and 57 firms repurchased more than HKD100 million (USD12.8 million) apiece.

The Hong Kong market’s decline and the nearly 20-month duration from 2021 through last year were highly unusual, with stocks undervalued after being oversold, an insider said.

The price-to-earnings ratio of companies listed in Hong Kong was 9.7, a very low figure, according to Shanghai-based data provider Wind Information.

Undervaluation coupled with high growth expectations and good prospects for a market recovery were likely among the reasons for the bigger size of stock buybacks, the insider said.

Stock markets in the Chinese mainland also came under pressure last year, but the size of repurchases there was smaller. More than 1,200 mainland-listed firms bought back shares last year, up by 210 from 2021. Outlays topped CNY160 billion (USD23.1 billion), a gain of nearly 27 percent from CNY126.3 billion the year before, per data from Choice.

At 12.3, the price-to-earnings ratio of firms listed on mainland markets was also low, according to Wind Information.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione