Volatile trading in Italy's troubled BMPS bank
Trading in ailing Italian bank Monte Paschi di Siena (BMPS) was repeatedly suspended on Wednesday amid highly volatile trading in Milan.
BMPS, facing massive job cuts and a swathe of branch closures to stem loan-linked losses, saw its shares slump 11.4 percent to 0.2613 euros in early trading, prompting an initial halt of trading.
The share price then briefly moved into the black but a flurry of further suspensions followed before settling down, off 3.5 percent at 0.286 euros around 1100 GMT - 76 percent down on the start of the year.
The Milan stock exchange as a whole lost 0.4 percent in morning trading.
BMPS, the world's oldest bank still operating today, said on Tuesday it plans to cut 2,600 jobs and close a quarter of its some 2,000 branches to try to turn a corner.
Its announcement came after Italy's third-largest lender posted a net third-quarter loss of 1.15 billion euros ($1.3 billion), which prompted volatile trading in its shares.
After last week's 56-percent share price gain, Monday saw a further rise of 28.3 percent before a Tuesday slump of 15 percent on apparent profit-taking.
The bank last year posted its first net profit in five years.
In July, BMPS announced a rescue plan to offload non-performing loans worth 27.6 billion euros into a separate entity, while seeking investors to inject new capital of up to 5.0 billion euros.
The bank said it hoped the planned recapitalization would come to fruition by year-end.
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BMPS, facing massive job cuts and a swathe of branch closures to stem loan-linked losses, saw its shares slump 11.4 percent to 0.2613 euros in early trading, prompting an initial halt of trading.
The share price then briefly moved into the black but a flurry of further suspensions followed before settling down, off 3.5 percent at 0.286 euros around 1100 GMT - 76 percent down on the start of the year.
The Milan stock exchange as a whole lost 0.4 percent in morning trading.
BMPS, the world's oldest bank still operating today, said on Tuesday it plans to cut 2,600 jobs and close a quarter of its some 2,000 branches to try to turn a corner.
Its announcement came after Italy's third-largest lender posted a net third-quarter loss of 1.15 billion euros ($1.3 billion), which prompted volatile trading in its shares.
After last week's 56-percent share price gain, Monday saw a further rise of 28.3 percent before a Tuesday slump of 15 percent on apparent profit-taking.
The bank last year posted its first net profit in five years.
In July, BMPS announced a rescue plan to offload non-performing loans worth 27.6 billion euros into a separate entity, while seeking investors to inject new capital of up to 5.0 billion euros.
The bank said it hoped the planned recapitalization would come to fruition by year-end.
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