Singapore stocks finish mixed, STI dragged lower by banks

WIKIPEDIA defines Chinese water torture as "a process in which water is slowly dripped onto a person's forehead, allegedly making the restrained victim insane".

Traders here scoff at this as form of punishment, pointing out that they have been undergoing a far worse fate - slow death by terminal boredom for more months than they'd care to remember.

Wednesday's session provided a good example of this, when the Straits Times Index hardly twitched for the whole session before sliding in the afternoon to a net loss of 8.67 points at 3,280.28.

The turnover figures here reinforced the view that Wednesday should maybe have been cancelled due to a lack of interest - some two billion units worth S$1.1 billion were traded. Excluding warrants, there were 221 rises versus 235 falls.

All three banks weakened.