Aug 27 Reuters JD.com said on Tuesday its board has approved a new 5 billion share repurchase program, effective September, allowing the Chinese ecommerce giant to buy back its stock over the next 36 months.

U.S.listed shares of the company jumped 5.1 in premarket trading.

JD.com is staring at stiff competition in the Chinese ecommerce sector, with all major companies ramping up promotions and discounts to woo cashstrapped consumers amid muted recovery in the world39;s secondlargest economy.

Earlier this month, bigbox retailer Walmart its entire roughly 3.7 billion stake in JD.com, ending an eightyear investment in the company as it was yielding waning returns.

Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar

Source Reuters