SEBI Open Market Buybacks Return: What It Means

SEBI Open Market Buybacks Are Back — and the Market Is Paying Attention In the summer of 2018, Infosys quietly became one of the most aggressive capital returners in Indian corporate history. It spent ₹13,000 crore buying back its own shares through a tender offer, a move that steadied a stock rattled by boardroom turbulence and signaled to the market that management believed the business was undervalued. The stock recovered. Investors who held through the buyback window did well. Fast forward to August 1, 2026. SEBI's open market buyback framework — suspended years earlier over concerns about price manipulation — is now fully operational again. Listed companies can once more buy their shares directly through stock exchanges over a defined window, rather than relying solely on tender offers or book-building routes. This is a meaningful addition to India's capital return toolkit, and the names most likely to move first are exactly the ones you'd expect: [Infosys](/stock/INFY), [TCS](/stock/TCS), [HUL](/stock/HINDUNILVR), [HDFC Bank](/stock/HDFCBANK). The reintroduction of open market buybacks isn't a dramatic regulatory overhaul. It's a calibrated policy restoration with new guardrails — including stricter disclosure timelines and daily purchase caps. But for investors who track capital allocation signals, the implications are real. IT Sector Leads the Queue No sector in India has a cleaner history of buybacks than IT. Between 2017 and 2023, [TCS](/stock/TCS) (NSE: TCS) returned over ₹1.1 lakh crore to shareholders through a combination of dividends and buybacks. [Wipro](/stock/WIPRO) (NSE: WIPRO) ran four consecutive annual buybacks between 2019 and 2022. [HCL Technologies](/stock/HCLTECH) (NSE: HCLTECH) has consistently maintained a payout ratio above 90% in recent years. What makes open market buybacks particularly attractive for IT majors right now is timing. The sector has faced margin pressure from elevated employee costs and a cautious global spending en...