Xiaomi’s Stock Hits Fresh Lows Even as It Splashes Out on Buybacks and Premium Phones

Xiaomi shares slide to €2.86 as new $2.5B buyback starts slowly; Q1 profit plunges 56.5%, smartphone margins squeeze. New Xiaomi 17T in India targets mid-premium growth.

The Chinese electronics giant finds itself in an awkward spot: its shares have tumbled to a 52-week low of 2.86 euros, while it simultaneously ramps up a multi-billion-dollar buyback and launches a new mid-premium smartphone in India. That disconnect between corporate action and market sentiment deepened further on June 10, when Xiaomi repurchased 3.7 million Class-B shares for roughly 97.4 million Hong Kong dollars, at prices between HK$26.26 and HK$26.38 apiece. The bought-back shares will be cancelled, permanently shrinking the float. Yet the closing price in Europe stood at just 2.89 euros, a mere 1.2 percent above the day’s trough and down 35.6 percent since the start of the year.

The buyback is part of a fresh mandate approved by shareholders on June 2, authorising up to HK$20 billion in repurchases over twelve months. So far, only 14.3 million shares — a tiny 0.06 percent of the outstanding stock — have been bought under this programme. That marks a sluggish start compared with the previous scheme, under which Xiaomi scooped up 399.6 million shares for a total of about HK$14.6 billion. The slow pace may reflect the board’s caution: in its official statement, the company stressed that the timing, size and price of future buybacks are not guaranteed. With a 30-day volatility reading of 42.44 percent, the road ahead looks anything but calm.

Operationally, the headwinds are formidable. In the first quarter of 2026, Xiaomi’s revenue slipped nearly 11 percent to 99.1 billion renminbi, while net profit cratered 56.5 percent to 4.7 billion renminbi. The company blamed rising component costs, geopolitical uncertainty and intensifying competition. Its smartphone division, which contributed 44.3 billion renminbi of sales, saw its gross margin shrink to just 10.1 percent — a razor-thin level that underscores the pricing pressure the industry faces. Xiaomi shipped 33.8 million handsets globally in Q1, securing an 11.3 percent market share and the third spot for the 23rd consecutive quarter. It also delivered nearly 81,000 electric vehicles, adding to the investment burden.

The launch of the Xiaomi 17T in India this week aims to counter some of those margin pressures. Priced at around 650 U.S. dollars after an instant discount of 5,000 rupees, the device targets the mid-premium segment — the fastest-growing part of the Indian market, which expanded 29 percent in Q1. The premium segment above it grew even faster, at 32 percent. Yet the overall Indian market contracted 4.1 percent year on year to 31 million units, with the average selling price rising to a record $302. Xiaomi’s positioning is less a strategic choice than a necessity: the entry-level market is shrinking, and margins there are even thinner. The 17T sports a Leica triple-camera system with a 5x periscope telephoto lens, a first for the T-series, but whether that can sway buyers away from Samsung and Apple in a price-sensitive environment remains an open question.

Technically, the stock has entered oversold territory, with the relative strength index at 31.3. That suggests selling pressure may be exhausting in the short term, but it does little to address the deeper fundamental issues: eroding margins, fierce competition and a home market in China that itself is under strain. The buyback sends a signal of confidence, but the scale of the programme relative to the company’s market capitalisation means it cannot single-handedly reverse the slide. For that, Xiaomi will need its product launches — from the 17T in India to its electric vehicles — to translate into stronger financial results in the second quarter. Until then, the stock is likely to remain tethered to its lows, buffeted by volatility and waiting for a catalyst that has yet to arrive.