MILAN – Shares in UniCredit, whose Russian arm is one of the largest lenders in the country, fell as much as 8% on Thursday, before triggering an automatic trading suspension, hit by the escalation of the Ukraine crisis.
Russian forces fired missiles at several cities in Ukraine and landed troops on its coast on Thursday.
By 0819 GMT shares in UniCredit fell 4.3% against a 2.7% drop in Italy’s banking index.
Rival Italian heavyweight Intesa Sanpaolo, which is also active in Russia where it has financed major investment projects such as the ‘Blue Stream’ gas pipeline or the sale of a stake in oil producer Rosneft, fell 4.2%.
(Reporting by Valentina Za< editing by Giulio Piovaccari)