Bank shares drag Milan bourse -1.73%

(ANSA) - Milan, August 1 - The Milan stock market was in the red Monday as the FTSE MIB blue chips index lost 1.73% to close at 16,554 points.
    Investors shied away from Italian banks that showed weaknesses after European Central Bank (ECB) stress tests, with results were released late last Friday. UniCredit lost 9.4% at the end of trading to close at 1.98 euros a share after it was suspended twice on volatility. Other lenders followed suit, including Carige (-6.8%), BPM (-6.2%), UBI (-6.2%), Banco popolare (-5%) Intesa Sanpaolo (-3.5%) and Mediobanca (-1.9%).
    Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) bucked the trend, closing +0.58% after analysts commented positively on the lender's plan to spin off 27 billion euros in non-performing loans while undergoing a five-billion-euro capital increase.