Tencent “leads the charge” — In the first half of the year, Hong Kong listed-company buybacks in Hong Kong stocks nearly reached HK$100 billion

◎Reporter Gao Zhigang, Guo Chenglin

In the first half of the year, the share buyback scale in the Hong Kong stock market showed a steady upward trend, increasing month by month. Data from Wind shows that in the first half of the year, 273 Hong Kong-listed companies implemented share buybacks, with a cumulative buyback value of HK$94.43B, basically in line with the same period last year.

Specifically, since March, market enthusiasm for buybacks has increased significantly, with both buyback amounts and the number of participating companies rising rapidly: the buyback amounts in March and April were HK$9.31B and HK$13.65B, respectively; in May, the buyback amount broke through HK$20 billion; in June, it further exceeded HK$30 billion, reaching a new high within the year. Meanwhile, the number of companies participating in buybacks increased year on year.

It is worth noting that this year, the consumer sector has been especially active in buybacks. Data shows that the year-on-year growth rates in buyback amounts in daily consumer, healthcare, and discretionary consumption all exceeded 100% in the first half of the year, while sectors such as finance and real estate saw a clear decline.

Tencent Leads the Mega Caps with Big-Ticket Buybacks

Statistics show that in the first half of the year, the top three companies by buyback amount in the Hong Kong stock market were Tencent Holdings, AIA Group, and Xiaomi Group. The buyback amounts of all three companies exceeded HK$10 billion, with Tencent Holdings leading by an absolute advantage.

As the “main force” behind Hong Kong stock buybacks, Tencent Holdings has continued to carry out big buyback operations. On the evening of July 6, the company announced that it repurchased 465k shares through a centralized competitive trading transaction that day, spending HK$205 million—only a snapshot of its routine buybacks. As of July 6, Tencent Holdings had completed 51 buybacks during the year, totaling 465k shares, with a total value of HK$1.34B. In just the first half of the year, Tencent Holdings’ buyback amount reached HK$25.61B, accounting for about one quarter of the total buyback scale in the Hong Kong stock market.

Tencent’s confidence to keep making large buybacks comes from its steady earnings growth. The company’s 2026 Q1 report shows: revenue of 196.46 billion yuan, up 9% year on year; Non-IFRS operating profit of 75.63 billion yuan, up 9% year on year. If the impact of new AI products is excluded, Non-IFRS operating profit grew 17% year on year to 84.4 billion yuan. In addition, as of the end of Q1, the company’s net cash balance was as high as 146.86 billion yuan, up 40 billion yuan compared with the end of 2025.

Following closely is AIA Group. In the first half of the year, its buyback amount was HK$24.41B, making it the financial company with the strongest buyback力度 in the year. Xiaomi Group ranked third with a buyback amount of HK$13.64B, making it the technology hardware company with the most buyback amount in the year. On June 30, Xiaomi Group spent HK$97.4 million to repurchase 4.5 million shares. Since the beginning of this year, the company has already completed 78 buybacks, totaling 351 million shares. Worth noting is that on May 26, Xiaomi Group announced the launch of a HK$20 billion share buyback plan, with buyback力度 only second to Tencent Holdings.

Beyond the three leading giants above, many other industry leaders have joined the ranks of big buyback programs. Companies such as China Hongqiao, ZTO Express, Li Auto, Geely Automobile, Pop Mart, etc., all had buyback amounts exceeding HK$1 billion in the first half of the year.

Against the backdrop of a cumulative decline of 8.32% in the Hang Seng Index and a cumulative decline of 18.29% in the Hang Seng Tech Index during the year, contrarian buybacks by leading companies are even more significant. Analysts believe that the market’s stage-by-stage adjustment in the Hong Kong stock market has provided relatively cost-effective buyback windows for high-quality companies with ample cash flow. These firms conduct large-scale buybacks with real money, essentially sending a clear signal to the market that the share price is undervalued.

A Buyback Wave Sweeps Through the Consumer Sector

From the perspective of industry structure, measured by absolute buyback amounts, the information technology sector is undoubtedly the “main force” of the first half of the year, with a cumulative buyback amount of HK$10.96B, ranking first among all sectors. For top-tier enterprises such as Tencent Holdings, Xiaomi Group, and Sunny Optical Technology, each company’s individual buyback amount exceeded HK$1 billion. The financial sector ranked second with HK$40.16B; large buybacks by companies such as AIA Group and Shou Cheng Holdings became an important support for the sector.

In terms of year-on-year growth in buyback amounts, the utilities sector showed astonishing explosive power. Although the buyback scale of HK$14.28B in the first half of the year was relatively small, the year-on-year growth rate was as high as 398.82%. Taking China Resources Gas as an example, in the first half of the year it repurchased 37.8537 million shares, spending HK$697 million, while in the same period last year it was only 2.0444 million shares and HK$43.0955 million—demonstrating strong momentum.

Meanwhile, the three major sectors of daily consumer, healthcare, and discretionary consumption all had year-on-year growth in buyback amounts exceeding 100%, reaching 193.72%, 186.33%, and 131.13%, respectively. The corresponding buyback amounts were HK$1.05B, HK$2.39B, and HK$7.38B, respectively.

In the healthcare industry, CXO leader-based enterprise WuXi AppTec led with a buyback amount of HK$10.43B, repurchasing more than 2.5B shares. At the same time, the company’s A-share side rapidly implemented a HK$1 billion buyback plan within less than a month, showing the management’s firm confidence in the company’s long-term value. Companies such as China Biopharmaceutical, Innovent Biologics, and Gensun Health also saw their buyback amounts remain among the top.

In the daily consumer sector, 26 companies including JD Health, Blue Moon Group, and GOTO Bio had buyback amounts all exceeding HK$100 million. In the discretionary consumption industry, well-known consumer brands such as Pop Mart, Yum China, Gu Ming Tea, Miniso, and Samsonite all had buyback scales exceeding HK$300 million. As representatives of the auto sector, Li Auto and Geely Automobile had buyback amounts of HK$2.34 billion and HK$1.89B, respectively, in the first half of the year.

When discussing the significance and role of buybacks, experts said that stock buybacks by listed companies have multiple positive implications. They not only help optimize equity structure and financial indicators, but also during periods of market volatility can convey a clear signal to investors that “the current share price has been severely undervalued,” effectively boosting market confidence and demonstrating the company’s confidence and capacity for long-term development.