Share buybacks by Singapore-listed companies pick up in June

SHARE buybacks by Singapore-listed companies totalled over 96 million shares in the month of June, for a total consideration of S$217.8 million, said the Singapore Exchange (SGX) on Tuesday.

This was up 74 per cent from the S$125 million in buyback consideration for the month of May, and up 3 per cent from the buyback consideration of S$212 million in June of the previous year.

Share buybacks refer to share issuers repurchasing some of their outstanding shares from shareholders through open market transactions.

SGX said the share buybacks in June 2016 were made by 31 companies, and the five counters with the largest buyback considerations were Global Logistic Properties, Singapore Airlines, CapitaLand, OCBC and Olam International. These five stocks accounted for 95 per cent of the month's buybacks.

Last month's buybacks have taken the total share buyback consideration for the first half of this year to S$544.0 million.