Italian Bank Stocks are Surging on the Back of Rescue Reports...

The Wall street Journal By MIKE BIRD

Italian bank shares surged higher on Monday, boosted by news that the country’s leading lenders and government were meeting to try to help the embattled sector.

In early trading, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena rose by nearly 10%, with others close behind.

The meeting is intended to establish an assistance fund to buy shares in Italian banks, and to help them to offload some of their rising stocks of nonperforming loans, according to people familiar with the matter.

Bank shares around the world have been hammered this year, with banks on the Stoxx Europe 600 index down 25% since the start of the year.

The FTSE Italia all share banks index has been hit harder, falling by 35% this year so far.

ENLARGE