Banks, Jardine slice almost 1% off STI

IT COULD be that yesterday's 29.7-point or 0.9 per cent loss for the Straits Times Index at 3,222.43 was in anticipation of a Monday slide on Wall Street. Or because the banks were among the prime movers, it could have been an unwinding of short-term positions which were taken to capitalise on better-than-expected bank earnings last week.

In any case, traders were at a loss to explain the s…