BR: EURO ZONE BANK SHARES RALLY AFTER ECB CUTS RATES
LONDON: Shares in the euro zone's top banks rallied on Thursday after the European Central Bank (ECB) cut interest rates to boost the euro zone economy.
The ECB surprised financial markets by dropping its main refinancing rate to zero from 0.05 percent.
It also expanded its quantitative easing asset-buying programme to 80 billion euros a month from 60 billion euros and cut its deposit rate to -0.4 percent from -0.3 percent, charging banks more to keep their money with the ECB.
The euro zone's Euro STOXX Banks index surged 6 percent.
Shares in Italian bank UniCredit surged 11 percent, while Societe Generale rose 6.6 percent. Deutsche Bank also climbed 6.7 percent.
