The paper examines the market timing ability of Indian firms engaged in open market repur-
chases. The study is primarily motivated by the unique disclosure feature of repurchases in
India, where the disclosures are far more frequent than in any other market. We find that
the repurchasing firms in India are able accumulate shares at favorable prices similar to the
US market. However, the cost savings do not translate into significant wealth creation for the
insiders as indicated by the short-run and long-run abnormal returns. This is contrary to the
evidence from markets like the US. Further, the cross-sectional variations in the cost savings
from repurchase execution in India are explained by the overall market returns and not by
firm characteristics. These findings contrast with that of US, where the firm characteristics
significantly explain the cross-sectional variation in the savings measure. It appears that the
more frequent disclosure of repurchase activity in India cripples the market timing ability by
reducing the information asymmetry between the firm and the outsiders. This conclusion is
further supported by the irrelevance of the past or concurrent stock returns in explaining the
time variation in the repurchase activity of firms.