por Ed_Alex » Mié Ago 10, 2011 12:43 pm
Societe Generale desmintiendo rumores
Societe Generale SA, France’s second-largest bank, issued a blanket denial of “all market rumors” after speculation that France’s creditworthiness was in doubt sent the shares down the most in more than 2 1/2 years.
The bank “categorically denies all market rumors,” Emmanuelle Renaudat, a spokeswoman for the Paris-based lender, said in an interview today. She declined to be more specific. Societe Generale led European bank stocks to the lowest since the aftermath of the credit crisis, tumbling 15 percent to 22.18 euros in Paris, the biggest drop since Oct. 27, 2008.
France’s top credit rating was affirmed by all three major rating companies as speculation Europe’s debt crisis would spread to the region’s second-biggest economy pushed the cost of insuring its government debt against default to a record.
“There is no indication whatsoever that France would waver in its determination to honor its obligations,” Dirk Hoffmann- Becking, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd. in London, said in a report to clients. “The resilience of the French banks against a freeze in the short-term funding market is very high,” he said, predicting that the sell-off in French banking shares “should be short-lived.”
European banks tumbled to the lowest since March 2009, when stocks fell to the weakest since the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. six months earlier. The Euro Stoxx Banks Index fell 8.9 percent to 109.87. BNP Paribas (BNP) SA, France’s largest bank, slid 9.5 percent to 35.61 euros and Credit Agricole SA (ACA) slumped 12 percent to 6.07 euros.
France’s market regulator, the Autorite des Marches Financiers, said it’s watching to ensure “good functioning” of markets with an eye toward financial shares in particular.