A Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) share price rise of 975 per cent ought to be very good news for the taxpayer, unfortunately today's dramatic gains are the result of a share consolidation as opposed to some actual good news for the 84 per cent state-owned lender.
The Royal Bank of Scotland's board agreed to give shareholders one share each for every 10 shares they currently hold, pushing the stock price up from around 20p before the bank holiday to 212p as of 11:36.
The idea behind the consolidation is to reduce the volatility of the bank's share price and, hopefully, to improve investor confidence.
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In order for the taxpayer to get back the £45bn spent rescuing RBS in 2008 and 2009 the share price would now need to rise to around 500p per share.
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