EUROPE MARKETS: European Stock Pull Back From 2016 High, With Banks Losing Ground
December 21 2016 - 4:41AM
Dow Jones News
By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
Shares in embattled Banca Monte dei Paschi plunges
European stocks slipped Wednesday, but hovered around their
highest level of the year, with investors assessing developments
surrounding embattled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi, as
well fines against some European lenders by a Swiss regulator.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gave up 0.2% to 360.75 as the
financial, utility and basic material sectors declined. But tech,
telecom, oil and gas and health care shares moved higher.
The index on Tuesday rose 0.5%
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/european-stocks-rise-to-2016-high-as-italian-banks-swing-higher-2016-12-20)
to 361.32, closing at its highest level since December last year.
That push came with help from Italian banks on news the Italian
government was preparing a bailout package for struggling
lenders.
The FTSE Italia All-Share Banks index fell 0.6%. Shares of Banca
Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA (BMPS.MI) dropped 17% off the Stoxx
600, following a report the embattled Italian lender's liquidity
could be wiped out sooner than anticipated.
The bank now expects to run out of liquidity in four months,
compared with a previous estimate of 11 months, Reuters reported,
citing BMPS documents. The bank's current net liquidity position is
10.6 billion euros ($11.02 billion).
Other Italian banks were down, with Mediabanca SpA (MB.MI)
giving up 1%, Banco Popolare Societa Cooperativa (BP.MI) off 0.7%
and Intensa Sanpaolo SpA (ISP.MI) down 0.7%. UniCredit SpA (UCG.MI)
, however, was up 0.4%.
Spanish banks: Meanwhile, Spanish bank stocks fell after the
European Union's top court reportedly lost a case over mortgage
interest repayments. The ruling may lead to banks having to give
back billions of euros to mortgage customers, Bloomberg reported.
Banco Popular Espanol SA (POP.MC) dropped 4.4%, Banco Bilboa
Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) fell 1.5%, and CaixaBank SA (CABK.MC)
lost 3.5%.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Competition Commission on Wednesday said it
has fined
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/switzerland-fines-banks-963-mln-for-rate-rigging-2016-12-21)
some lenders a total of about 99 million Swiss francs ($96.3
million) in its probes into rigging of rates and related
products.
The regulator COMCO said in a statement it had reached an
"amicable settlement" with RBS, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Société
Générale over their participation in the Euribor cartel. RBS and
Barclays also settled investigations into cartels to manipulate Yen
Libor, Swiss franc interest rate derivative pricing and the Swiss
franc Libor benchmark rate.
Shares in Deutsche Bank AG (DBK.XE) (DBK.XE) were up 1.5%,
Societe Generale SA (GLE.FR) fell 0.5%, Royal Bank of Scotland
(RBS.LN) (RBS.LN) rose 0.8% and Barclays (BCS) (BCS) shed 0.5%.
Indexes: Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 0.3% to 19,194.04 and
Germany's DAX 30 index edged up 0.1% to 11,476.30. France's CAC 40
index was flat at 4,848.08.
The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% to 7,054.15
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/bank-stocks-rise-nudging-ftse-100-higher-2016-12-21).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 21, 2016 05:26 ET (10:26 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
FTSE 100
Index Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024