(News Bulletin 247) – European banks, and especially Italian ones, regained ground on Wednesday. Tuesday, they had reacted strongly to the decline after the announcement of a surprise tax on the profits of Italian banks and the degradation by Moody’s of the rating of several American establishments.

The Italian banking sector is trying to recover on Wednesday the day after a nightmarish session. In the first exchanges on Wednesday in Milan, Finecobank resumed 4.8%, Unicredit 3.5%, Monte Paschi Siena progressed by 3.4% while Bper Banca appreciated by 3%.

This small clarification on the sector is linked to the latest announcements by the Italian government on its project to tax the “superprofits” of the country’s banks. Italy’s economy ministry said on Tuesday evening that the new tax could not exceed more than 0.1% of banks’ risk-weighted assets.

This ceiling would maintain the tax at 3.2 billion against the 5 billion which had been evaluated by the Italian press on Tuesday, specifies Il Sole 24 Ore in its market update published on Wednesday morning.

9.5 billion capitalization erased

This burst of pride remains insufficient, however, to wipe out all of the heavy losses suffered the day before by Italian banking shares, in reaction to the country’s government’s surprise decision to introduce a 40% tax on their profits.

At the close on Tuesday evening, Bper Banca had fallen by 10.9%, Monte dei Paschi di Siena by 10.8%, Finecobank had dropped 9.9%, Banco Bpm 9%. The first two banks Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit returned 8.7% and 5.9% respectively.

In all, this blow of tobacco on the Italian banking compartment erased 9.5 billion euros of capitalization in a single session, recalls Il Sole 24 Ore. And this shock wave on the sector had also weighed down the FTSE MIB, the star index of the Milan Stock Exchange, which then ended in a sharp decline of 2.12% on Tuesday evening, the lowest since July 11. On Wednesday, it also rebounded by 1.90%.

More generally, the Stoxx 600 Banks sector index rose 1.5% after falling 2.7% on Tuesday following Italian announcements and the downgrading by Moody’s of the credit rating of certain American banks.

In Paris, French banks are also regaining height after having also yielded to the call of the decline. BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole, which are the banks most exposed to Italy, rose 2% and 0.90% respectively after having lost 3% and 2.5% the day before. With an increase of 1.8%, Societe Generale is therefore catching up after losing 1.7% on Tuesday evening.

More generally, the CAC 40 rebounded by 1.40% on Wednesday around 10:10 a.m. and erased its losses incurred the day before (-0.70%), despite new disappointing Chinese statistics.