European stocks slipped Wednesday, but hovered around their highest level of the year, with investors assessing developments surrounding embattled Italian lender Banca Monte dei Paschi, as well fines against some European lenders by a Swiss regulator. The Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, -0.30% gave up 0.2% to 360.75 as the financial, utility and basic material sectors declined. But tech, telecom, oil and gas and health care shares moved higher. The index on Tuesday rose 0.5% to 361.32, closing at its highest level since December last year. That push came with help from Italian banks on news the Italian government was preparing a bailout package for struggling lenders. –– ADVERTISEMENT –– The FTSE Italia All-Share Banks index IT8300, -0.62% fell 0.6%. Shares of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA BMPS, -4.26% dropped 17% off the Stoxx 600, following a report the embattled Italian lender’s liquidity could be wiped out sooner than anticipated. The bank now expects to run out of liquidity in four months, compared with a previous estimate of 11 months, Reuters reported, citing BMPS documents. The bank’s current net liquidity position is 10.6 billion euros ($11.02 billion). Other Italian banks were down, with Mediabanca SpA MB, -1.26% giving up 1%, Banco Popolare Societa Cooperativa BP, -1.14% off 0.7% and Intensa Sanpaolo SpA ISP, -1.06% down 0.7%. UniCredit SpA UCG, -0.21% , however, was up 0.4%. Spanish banks: Meanwhile, Spanish bank stocks fell after the European Union’s top court reportedly lost a case over mortgage interest repayments. The ruling may lead to banks having to give back billions of euros to mortgage customers, Bloomberg reported. Banco Popular Espanol SA POP, -6.61% dropped 4.4%, Banco Bilboa Vizcaya Argentaria BBVA, -1.77% fell 1.5%, and CaixaBank SA CABK, -3.23% lost 3.5%. Meanwhile, the Swiss Competition Commission on Wednesday said it has fined some lenders a total of about 99 million Swiss francs ($96.3 million) in its probes into rigging of rates and related products. The regulator COMCO said in a statement it had reached an “amicable settlement� with RBS, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale over their participation in the Euribor cartel. RBS and Barclays also settled investigations into cartels to manipulate Yen Libor, Swiss franc interest rate derivative pricing and the Swiss franc Libor benchmark rate. Shares in Deutsche Bank AG DBK, +0.45% DBK, +1.22% were up 1.5%, Societe Generale SA GLE, -0.69% fell 0.5%, Royal Bank of Scotland RBS, +0.66% RBS, +1.45% rose 0.8% and Barclays BARC, +0.00% BCS, +2.09% shed 0.5%. Indexes: Italy’s FTSE MIB index I945, -0.63% fell 0.3% to 19,194.04 and Germany’s DAX 30 index DAX, -0.02% edged up 0.1% to 11,476.30. France’s CAC 40 index PX1, -0.47% was flat at 4,848.08.

Source