More than $38 billion was wiped off the value of Australian stocks today, led by ANZ's worst one-day share plunge since the global financial crisis. ANZ shares slumped 7.5 per cent to $30.14 after the bank on Thursday tapped shareholders for up to $3 billion in extra funds. It set a minimum price of $30.95 a share, and that is all the bank got. The lack of enthusiasm from big institutional investors, and a surprise increase in bad debt provisions, were behind today's plunge. Abc news
For the last couple of years market analysts have been consistently plugging ANZ's exposure to the Asian financial market as a plus. Now I don't know much about it but that always struck me as strange.
If you owe the bank a million dollars you have a problem. If lots of people collectively owe the bank billions of dollars and there isn't a boom to pay it any more, then the bank has a problem. But if the government backstops the bank then the taxpayers have a problem.
