Italy bank stocks up 55% in 2024

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 28 - Italian bank shares rose 55% in 2024, Bloomberg said Saturday.
    With Banco BPM rising 60%, UniCredit up over 50%, and Intesa Sanpaolo 44% higher, in 2024 it was the credit sector that drove Piazza Affari, which for its part grew over 12% in the year.
    This earned Milan third place in Europe behind Frankfurt and Madrid.
    Help came from the strong profitability on very high rates especially at the beginning of the year, as well as from the negligible impact of the extra taxes introduced by the government.
    But operators and analysts see the trend continuing thanks to the next moves in the chess game that began with the all-share offer announced by UniCredit on Banco BPM.
    A Bloomberg analysis highlights how European banks this year have attracted the highest number of mergers and acquisitions since 2020, with deals approaching 40 billion euros. (ANSA).