Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of rolled-steel products manufacturer China Gerui Materials Group (Nasdaq: CHOP) were hot to the touch today, jumping as much as 14% in intraday trading.

So what: China Gerui announced today that through June 20, it has repurchased 780,273 of its shares at an average price of $3.82. The total spent on the repurchases was just shy of $3 million, leaving the company with roughly $7 million remaining under its $10 million share-buyback program.

Now what: Small-cap Chinese companies trading on U.S. exchanges have had to fight tooth and nail against short-sellers as they have accused quite a number of companies of being outright fraudulent. Even if China Gerui hasn't been targeted the way other companies have, the fact that it's currently trading at less than four times its trailing earnings suggests that it has at least been caught in the crossfire.

In hopes of taking advantage of battered stock prices, some companies have taken actions similar to China Gerui's buyback program. China Security & Surveillance (NYSE: CSR), for instance, has agreed to be bought out, while Harbin Electric (Nasdaq: HRBN) has just agreed to the same. Thus far it doesn't appear that these actions have seriously turned the tide, but buyback programs like China Gerui's could prove very beneficial to shareholders over the long term, assuming that the company doesn't get caught up in the shenanigans that are causing other stocks in the sector to implode.

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