Open Market Buybacks Return Aug 1: IT & PSU Stocks

Open Market Buybacks Are Back: What SEBI's August 1 Rule Change Means for You SEBI's June 19, 2026 board decision brings open market buybacks back to Indian exchanges starting August 1, 2026. This is a significant shift. For the past several years, companies wanting to buy back their own shares had only two routes: tender offers (where you, the shareholder, submit shares at a fixed price) or book-building. The open market route, where a company simply buys its own stock through the exchange like any other investor, was suspended in 2024 amid concerns about price manipulation. Now it's returning, with tighter guardrails, and the market is paying attention. Think of it this way. A tender offer is like a company sending you a formal invitation to sell your shares at a set price by a deadline. An open market buyback is the company quietly accumulating its own stock over weeks or months, providing a continuous floor of demand. That sustained buying pressure is what makes this route interesting for stock prices and for investors trying to position ahead of announcements. The timing matters. Indian corporate balance sheets, especially in IT services and public sector undertakings, are sitting on unusually high cash reserves. [TCS](/stock/TCS) reported cash and equivalents of approximately Rs 13,500 crore in its March 2026 balance sheet. [Infosys](/stock/INFY) carried roughly Rs 17,200 crore. These aren't companies that need capital. They need to return it efficiently, and open market buybacks give them a flexible, lower-friction mechanism to do exactly that. Which Sectors Are Best Placed to Act IT services is the obvious first stop. NSE: TCS, NSE: INFY, NSE: WIPRO, and NSE: HCLTECH have historically been the most active buyback participants in Indian markets. TCS alone has executed over Rs 1.1 lakh crore in buybacks across multiple rounds since 2017. The company's payout philosophy targets returning virtually all free cash flow to shareholders, which makes it a near-c...