THREE weeks ago, I said in this column that I would be a buyer of Singapore bank stocks if they traded below their book values. When the buying opportunity that I defined presented itself recently, I began dipping my toe in the water, accumulating some shares in OCBC.

Talk about trying to catch a falling knife. Immediately after each of my buy orders was filled, the stock sank further.

Yet, it seems Singapore's three local banks - DBS, OCBC and UOB - see value in their shares too. Last week, they made headlines for their relatively aggressive share buybacks during the market's steep dive in the first three weeks of March.