Conserve cash, don't buy back shares

A SIMPLISTIC distinction often made between Western and traditional Chinese medicine is that the former uses scientifically proven methods to treat disease symptoms, while the latter goes for a broader approach to address root causes.

From this perspective, swooning stock markets are just symptoms. It is foolish to attempt to support share prices using artificial means, in the hope that underlying diseases go away.

With valuations at lows, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) has seen a raft of share buyback activity, with around 1,500 such announcements made by companies in the past six months.