(Yicai Global) Feb. 25 -- Shares of Gree Electric Appliances rose after the Chinese home appliance maker purchased 7.2 million units of its stock, following the mainland’s biggest-ever share repurchase plan revealed by rivaling Midea Group a day earlier.

Gree Electric’s share price [SHE:000651] jumped as much as 5.6 percent today. In the afternoon, the shares were 4.5 percent up at CNY59.85 (USD9.30).

Gree Electric bought back CNY412 million (USD63.9 million) worth of equity on the secondary market by centralized bidding yesterday, accounting for a bit more than 0.1 percent of its total share capital, the Zhuhai-based firm said in a statement yesterday. It paid prices between CNY57.02 and CNY57.42 apiece.

The timing was well chosen amid sliding stock prices and intensifying competition. Gree Electric's shares have been dropping over the past three days after Chief Executive Huang Hui resigned, based on the firm's announcement on Feb. 22.

But the company was also planning on the move already earlier. In October 2020, Gree Electric said it will launch its equity buyback program's second phase. It had splurged CNY5.6 billion (USD867.8 million) to purchase 101 million shares in the first phase that was announced in April 2020.

Another electrical appliance giant Midea said on Feb. 23 that it will buy back between 50 million and 100 million shares on the secondary market over the next 12 months, spending CNY14 billion (USD2.2 billion).

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi