New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- Infosys Ltd said it will spend Rs.18,000 crore to repurchase shares from the market, marking the biggest buyback yet by India's second-largest IT services company.

The company will buy back 100 million shares at Rs.1,800 each, 19.2% above their Thursday closing of Rs.1509.50. Earlier, Infosys spent Rs.13,000 crore in its first buyback in 2017, followed by Rs.8260 crore in 2019, Rs.9200 crore in 2021 and Rs.9300 crore in 2022.

The buyback continues a tradition of IT services companies returning excess back to shareholders. TCS and Wipro have both engaged in three buybacks each over the last five years. TCS has a stated policy of returning 80-100% of free cash flow to shareholders, whereas HCLTech has a target of re...