China Mobile's price ringtone goes off

Shares of China Mobile (0941) fell despite a HK$422-million share buyback as well as MSCI adding the A-shares into the MSCI China A Onshore Indexes in its quarterly index review.

The red-chip telecom giant purchased over 7.30 million Hong Kong shares at HK$56.6 to HK$58.1 apiece, totaling over HK$422 million. This marked the first share buy-back by the firm in nearly 25 years since its market debut. However, its shares in Hong Kong traded 2.76 percent lower at HK$56.3 yesterday after two days of sharp gains.

The operator had announced last month that it planned to repurchase no more than 10 percent of its Hong Kong shares after its highly anticipated homecoming to the mainland stock market, when it raised US$7.64 billion (HK$59.4 billion) in its Shanghai listing in January - China's biggest public share offering in a decade.

As for MSCI adding the A shares of China Mobile and other three stocks into the MSCI China A Onshore Indexes, that tracks large- and mid-cap stocks listed in Shenzhen and Shanghai in the quarterly index review.

MSCI will also add Singaporean ride hailer Grab and 20 other securities to its flagship global index.

Eleven securities will be removed from MSCI's ACWI Index, which tracks stocks from 23 developed markets and 25 emerging markets. The changes will take effect from the market close on February 28.