Yangzijiang's stock tumult: a primer for firms to respond swiftly, not recoil

TIMING is everything in the stock market - or so, it goes.

Based on Singapore-listed Yangzijiang Shipbuilding's two encounters with stock turbulence - last month and five years ago - and how it took charge of the situations rather differently, we can also surmise these - bad news travels fast, good news comes early and delayed reaction can cost you.

When Yangzijiang's shares tumbled over 10 per cent in mid-2014 after which trading was halted amid allegations of misdeeds by a Shenzhen-listed railway firm against the shipbuilder's founder, controlling owner and executive chairman Ren Yuanlin, a clarification was shot out within two days.