Stocks plunge further with Credit Suisse and rate rises in sharp focus
Banking stocks are under renewed pressure as worries intensify over a major European lender's balance sheet and investors ponder what another big rate rise would mean for banks across the euro area.
Banking stocks are enduring fresh, steep losses on Wednesday as concern over the health of US banks crosses the Atlantic.
Credit Suisse shares plunged to new record lows following comments by its largest investor that it could not provide the Swiss bank with more financial assistance.
Switzerland's second-largest bank, no stranger to crisis over the past few years, has seen concerns for its financial health come into sharper focus since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week.
The attention of investors has mostly been on the ability of lenders to absorb the aggressive tightening of interest rates since last year, which has soured their bond holdings.
But adding to the selling mood was speculation that the European Central Bank (ECB) planned to raise its core deposit rate by 0.5 percentage points this Thursday.
A source close to the ECB Governing Council, the Reuters news agency reported, had said that the ECB was unlikely to ditch plans for a big rate move this week because that would damage its credibility.
Markets, on Wednesday morning, were pricing in a 90% chance of a 0.5 percentage point hike.
However, given the scale of the losses, the probability had dropped to below 30% by Wednesday afternoon.
Credit Suisse shares were almost 24% lower.
Other European banking stocks have also fallen, albeit not as badly, with Sabadell, TSB's Spanish parent, down 11% and Commerzbank, Germany's second largest lender, down 10%.
Spain's IBEX was more than 4% down while the Italian MIB and CAC 40 in Paris were off by more than 3.5%.
In London, the FTSE 100 was trading almost 3% down in early afternoon trading, below the level it had started 2023.
Insurers and asset managers joined banks in bleeding further value.
Barclays and Standard Chartered were down by nearly 9%.
US equity markets also opened lower with financial stocks leading the way.
Attention, however, was firmly focused on Credit Suisse.
Its largest shareholder, Saudi National Bank (SNB), said it would not buy more shares on regulatory grounds as it would take its stake above 10%.
A string of scandals have undermined the confidence of its investors and clients, with Credit Suisse customer outflows in the fourth quarter rising to more than 110 billion Swiss francs (£100bn)
SNB said it was happy with Credit Suisse's turnaround plan and did not think it would need more money.
That was despite its annual report for 2022, released earlier this week, admitting that "material weaknesses" in controls over financial reporting had been identified and customer outflows had not yet been stemmed.
news.sky.com
