Kioxia Buyback Propels Japan’s Corporate Stock Buying to Record

Japanese corporations logged the highest weekly equity purchases on record as memory maker Kioxia Holdings Corp.’s share buyback bolstered the tally.

These corporations bought around ¥1.1 trillion ($6.9 billion) worth of Japanese equities on a net basis for the week ended August 7, according to data from the Japan Exchange Group.

Kioxia’s share buyback, conducted between August 3 and August 10, amounted to around ¥800 billion.

“There has never before been an example of a company carrying out a share buyback on such a large scale in such a short period of time,” said Shota Sando an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Intelligence Lab.

He added that “the share price has not risen that much, indicating that selling pressure was strong.” The company shares during this week rose 2.7%.

The memory maker’s share have roughly halved from its peak in June as chip-related shares were broadly sold off over concerns over the sustainability of the AI spending boom. The stock however is still up more than 400% this year.