A stock buying spree by the oil sector helped drive the value of global share buybacks to a record in 2022, closing the gap on the amount those same companies paid out in dividends.

The world’s top 1200 companies bought back a record $US1.31 trillion ($1.9 trillion) of their shares last year, just shy of the $US1.39 trillion the same firms paid in dividends, according to data compiled by Janus Henderson, a $US311 billion global asset manager.