Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, significantly increased its stock buybacks in the second quarter of the year. The company announced on Tuesday that it spent 5.8 billion USD to repurchase 77 million American Depositary Shares (ADS). This represents an increase compared to the 4.8 billion USD in the previous quarter. In the quarter ending December 31, shares worth 2.9 billion USD were repurchased.

The average repurchase price per ADS was 75.32 USD, which is below the volume-weighted average price of the ADS for the quarter of 76.68 USD, but above the price of 72 USD at the end of the quarter, according to MarketWatch. Compared to the fiscal quarter that ended on September 30, Alibaba has more than tripled its share repurchases (1.7 billion USD).

Overall, Alibaba has spent $15.2 billion on stock buybacks over the last four quarters, which is approximately 9.29 percent of its current market capitalization of $163.68 billion.

The news of increased buybacks led to a rise in the stock price of Alibaba shares traded on the US stock exchange. On Tuesday, the shares gained 2.08 percent, and on Wednesday, the company's ADR papers on the NYSE rose by 2.57 percent to $75.57. The Alibaba stock also saw an increase of 2.48 percent to 72.20 Hong Kong dollars on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.