Italy's UniCredit hit by massive loss

Shares in Italy's biggest bank UniCredit plunged on Monday after it approved a 7.5-billion euro ($10.3-billion) capital increase and said it had suffered a massive loss of 10.64 billion euros in the third quarter. The bank's shares plunged nearly 8.0 percent after the announcement but then recovered slightly to show a loss of 6.30 percent in a market that was down 2.0 percent. The lender, which employes 160,000 worldwide and has major operations in Eastern Europe, also said it planned to cut 5,200 jobs in Italy by 2015 and was expecting a net profit of 6.5 billion euros by that date. It added that it would not be paying dividends to shareholders this year. It said it had been hit by "the effects of the overall slowdown in the global economic environment, coupled with the European sovereign debt crisis and continued significant market volatility." It said the job cuts were equivalent to about 12 percent of its workforce in Italy.