The boom in the stock market this year was so large that it has overshadowed the boost in share prices that occurred when listed firms bought back their shares, data showed Monday.

The 54 share buybacks from 33 listed firms on the first-tier Kospi this year led to a 3.4 percent jump in firms’ share price on average. The Kospi, however, rose 5.4 percent on average over the cited period, according to data compiled by the Korea Exchange as of Nov. 29.

Excluding four share repurchases of market bellwether Samsung Electronics worth 7.46 trillion won ($6.85 billion), another 50 cases of disclosed share buybacks by 32 firms worth 6.1 trillion won led to a 67.8 percent loss on average.

On the second-tier Kosdaq, 39 firms disclosed 51 share repurchases worth 183 billion won total this year, which led to a 2 percent increase in share price on average. During the same period, the Kosdaq rose 8.3 percent on average.

Stock prices tend to rise during the 3-month-long share repurchases, since they might result in increased demand for the stocks following a rise in earnings per share.

As of Nov. 29, Kospi soared 24 percent on-year, riding an earnings parade for tech giants such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. The Kosdaq also rose 23.8 percent on-year, mainly on anticipation for biotech firms’ new drug developments on the global market.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)