MADRID, Dec 28: Shares in Spain’s bailed-out Bankia plummeted by 26 per cent on Friday after the authorities exposed a sea of red ink in the lender ahead of a huge bailout.

The bank’s shares plunged 25.72 per cent to 41 euro cents by early afternoon on the Madrid stock exchange. Earlier in the day, they hit a low of 36.3 cents, down 34.2 per cent from the previous close.

Bankia and its parent BFA, which lie at the heart of a Spanish banking crisis, said on Thursday the group had received 17.959 billion euros in public money to fix its balance sheet.—AFP