XIAOCAIYUAN (00999) saw its shares rise over 4%, continuing a recent upward trend. At the time of writing, the stock was up 4.14% to HK$7.04, with a turnover of HK$20.81 million.

The company announced plans for a share buyback. Excluding treasury shares, it intends to repurchase up to 1.5% of its total issued shares, or no more than 17,647,782 shares, from the open market depending on conditions. The repurchased shares will be cancelled or held as treasury stock. The group stated it plans to fund the buyback program using internal resources while maintaining sufficient financial resources to support ongoing operational growth.

In other positive news, recent reports indicate a significant increase in same-store in-restaurant customer traffic for XIAOCAIYUAN since the start of the year. The annual membership program "88VIP," launched four months ago, has reportedly driven a notable improvement in the repurchase rate, with a cumulative member repurchase rate reaching 46.48%. Multi-channel customer acquisition efforts have led to new customer growth that outpaces last year's figures, while the frequency of purchases by existing customers has also increased. By the end of April, same-store in-restaurant traffic for XIAOCAIYUAN had grown by 450,000 customers.