Spain: nationalised institute leads drop in stock exchange

Spain is seeing a surge in withdrawals from the counters of Bankia, the institute nationalised by the government last week. According to reports by El Mundo, in the last few days Bankia's customers have withdrawn over a billion euros from the bank. Bankia's shares in the stock exchange are continuing to drop for the tenth consecutive week. At midday the stock had lost up to 28.2%, then rising again to -17%. From its debut onto the stock market last July with a value of 3.75 euros, Bankia's shares have already lost 60% of their value. The stock exchange capitalisation went from 4.89 billion euros of last May 4 to the 2.5 billion today according to financial sources quoted by the Spanish national radio RNE. Bankia's quotations, which haven't been suspended by the National Market Values Commission, have been conditioned by the resignation of former president Rodrigo Rato, from the change in the group's directors, from the announcement of the nationalisation of the subsidiary BFA and the necessity for further financial provisions of 4.81 billion euros in order to save the financial group's property portfolio.