Singtel: Buybacks Alongside A Rising Dividend
...Something is stirring on the Singapore market, and it shows up in the buyback tally.
Over the first five months of 2026, 57 primary-listed companies bought back S$1.26 billion of their own shares on the open market.
That is a sharp step up from around S$930 million in the same period last year, and more than double the S$505 million spent two years ago.
The buying is not spread evenly.
STI stocks alone accounted for S$1.20 billion of that total.
And three blue chips did most of the heavy lifting: Singapore Telecommunications (SGX: Z74), OCBC (SGX: O39), and Keppel Ltd (SGX: BN4).
Buybacks can do useful things.
They shrink the share count, which can lift earnings per share, and they signal that management sees value in its own stock.
But for a dividend investor, the question is sharper: is the buying backed by real cash, sitting alongside a sustainable payout? Let’s look at each.
