Societe Generale rebounds after trade suspended

Trading in French bank Societe Generale, after being briefly suspended at the market opening Thursday, rebounded with the share price rising 8.9 percent to 24.16 euros. On Wednesday, Societe Generale shares fell 14.74 percent on rumours, later denied as unfounded, that the bank faced problems because of its exposure to Greek debt. Other banks, which also suffered badly on Wednesday, staged similar gains on Thursday. Shares in BNP Paribas were up more than 1.0 percent, Credit Agricole 3.0 percent and Natixis 4.0 percent around 0705 GMT. The French stock exchange regulator (AMF) said earlier that it will watch closely how bank shares fare on Thursday. "We will be watching over the sound functioning of the markets and in particular, the banking stocks which suffered badly (on Wednesday)," an AMF spokesman said.