Tencent Accelerates Buyback as Stock Falls

Tencent bought back the most number of shares in a single day Wednesday, a move that should support the share price after the Chinese tech giant's appearance on a Pentagon list triggered one of its heaviest selloffs in years.

- SHERRY QIN

China's largest public company by market capitalization spent the equivalent of about $193.3 million to buy back 4.05 million shares on Wednesday, a filing to the Hong Kong bourse showed. That came after it repurchased 3.93 million shares Tuesday, stepping up a long running program.

Tencent started repurchasing shares more aggressively last year, with its spending on buybacks more than doubling from 2023 to roughly $14.4 billion, according to data from financial platform Wind Information.

In 2024, Tencent spent more money than any other Hong Kong-listed company on share buybacks, more than double that of HSBC Holdings, which ranked second, Wind data showed.