US technology company Apple is now worth around the 32 biggest euro zone banks.
That's the stark result from a steep fall within the share price of banks including Spain's Santander, France's BNP Paribas, Germany's Deutsche Financial institution and Italy's Unicredit, compared to a steady rise in Apple's valuation, based on Thomson Reuters data.
Earlier on Friday the DJ STOXX euro zone banking institutions index fell 4%, valuing its 32 members at $340 billion. That's in line with the market capitalisation of their free-float shares, which for some French banks particularly is less than 100%.
The index has crashed by a third since the beginning of July, hammered by fears banks will lose billions from their holdings of euro zone government bonds along with a failure of policymakers to stop a euro zone debt crisis from distributing.
The euro zone banks have lost three-quarters of their value since peaking within May 2007.
In contrast, Apple's market capitalisation has soared to $340 billion about the back of the success of innovative technology products like iPods, iPhones as well as iPads.
That's the stark result from a steep fall within the share price of banks including Spain's Santander, France's BNP Paribas, Germany's Deutsche Financial institution and Italy's Unicredit, compared to a steady rise in Apple's valuation, based on Thomson Reuters data.
Earlier on Friday the DJ STOXX euro zone banking institutions index fell 4%, valuing its 32 members at $340 billion. That's in line with the market capitalisation of their free-float shares, which for some French banks particularly is less than 100%.
The index has crashed by a third since the beginning of July, hammered by fears banks will lose billions from their holdings of euro zone government bonds along with a failure of policymakers to stop a euro zone debt crisis from distributing.
The euro zone banks have lost three-quarters of their value since peaking within May 2007.
In contrast, Apple's market capitalisation has soared to $340 billion about the back of the success of innovative technology products like iPods, iPhones as well as iPads.