Chart of the Day: Share buybacks hit $31.9m in February

ST Engineering repurchased around 4 million shares to account for nearly half of the monthly figure.

Companies in Singapore were unrelenting in their buyback spree as total share buyback consideration rose to $31.9m in February which was a fifth higher than the $26.4m filed in the previous month but lower than the year-on-year figure of $134m, according to SGX. 

Also read: Share buybacks more than tripled to $1.53b in 2018

There were 15 SGX primary-listed stocks that bought back a total of 20.1 million in shares or units, led by ST Engineering, OCBC and Keppel REIT Management. ST Engineering accounted for almost half the February figures, after it repurchased roughly 4 million shares in a price range of $3.66 to $3.75. 

There were four new mandates commenced in February 2019 with Singtel commenting its share buyback mandate on 15 February buying back 370,672 shares for a consideration of $1.11m. 

Similarly, EuroSports Global commenced its share buyback mandate which was approved on July 2018 and bought back 0.27% of its issued shares whilst ecoWise Holdings repurchased 500,000 shares in February.  

Lastly, Starburst Holdings commenced a new buyback mandate on 27 February and bought back 70,600 shares.