(Yicai) Aug. 28 -- JD.Com said the Chinese e-commerce giant will repurchase as much as USD5 billion of its own shares just days after US retail giant Walmart sold its entire stake in the business.

JD.Com will buy back the stock, including American depository shares, from next month to August 2027, the Beijing-based company announced yesterday.

Share buybacks remove some of a publicly traded company's shares from the stock market, with the aim of bolstering the price.

JD.Com’s shares [HKG: 9618] closed 1.8 percent higher at HKD103.50 (USD13.27) in Hong Kong today. The firm’s New York-listed stock [NASDAQ: JD] ended 2.3 percent up at USD26.38 yesterday.

The shares tumbled on Aug. 20 after Walmart, which was JD.Com’s second-largest shareholder at the end of the first quarter, exited the firm by selling its almost 10 percent stake for around USD3.6 billion. Walmart plans to use the proceeds to hike investment in its other businesses in China, such as the fast-growing membership-only warehouse retail chain Sam's Club.

The following day, JD.Com said it had spent about USD390 million to repurchase shares on that day alone and that it had completed the 36-month USD3 billion buyback program approved by its board this March.

Editor: Futura Costaglione