MILAN (Reuters) - Battered Italian lender Monte dei Paschi di Siena could leave the pan-European STOXX Europe 600 index in its upcoming reshuffle in September, Exane said on Wednesday.
The bank, which fared the worst in the latest Europe-wide bank stress tests and unveiled last week an emergency plan to avoid being wound down, joined the STOXX 600 in 1999.
The possible exclusion from the index would only be the latest blow to the shares of the world's oldest bank which have lost more than 90 percent of their value since 2007.
At its peaks the bank was valued at more than 12 billion euros and is now worth less than a billion euros.
Banks shares have been heavily hit this year as the sector struggles to grow pressured by an ultra-low-rates monetary policy amid worries about capital strength and bad loans.
In a clear blow to the sector, STOXX Ltd will exclude bank heavyweights Credit Suisse (SIX:CSGN) and Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) from Europe's top 50 blue-chip companies next week.
STOXX will announce the results of the quarterly STOXX review on Aug 23 with the reshuffle effective on Sept 19.
Besides Monte Paschi, Exane said the "highly likely" deletions would be Banco Comercial Portugues, Unipol Gruppo Finanziario, Thomas Cook, Eurobank Ergasias and OCI.
Indivior, Lundbeck, Schaeffler, Centamin, Moncler and IMCD should join, while Dong Energy and Paysafe could also be added, pushing Bilfinger and Air France-KLM out.