Millennium Shares Rise After News of New CEO

LISBON (Reuters) - Shares in Millennium bcp (BCP.LS), Portugal's largest listed bank, rose on Monday after shareholders invited the head of the country's largest state-owned bank to become chief executive.

At 0910 GMT shares in Millennium were 2.04 percent higher at 2.99 euros in thin trade. The PSI20 .PSI20 Lisbon stock index was 0.33 percent higher.

Shareholders on Friday asked Carlos Santos Ferreira, head of state bank Caixa Geral de Depositos, to take over at Millennium after regulators found the bank had bought its own shares through offshore companies without reporting the purchases.

The findings prompted authorities to ask Millennium's current management to step aside, meaning current Chief Executive Filipe Pinhal will leave when his mandate expires in January.

"It is positive for Millennium to have consensus surrounding who will lead the bank," said John dos Santos, analyst at Lisbon Brokers. "That will give some support to Millennium's shares."

A trader said, however, that there was still lots of uncertainty surrounding the bank.

"Millennium is recovering but many uncertainties surrounding the bank are maintained, which will limit gains," the trader said.

Millennium said on Sunday that its accounts were in order and that all purchases by the offshore companies had been accounted for.

The investigation by the CMVM market regulator into the stock purchases by Millennium continues.

The findings follow a year of management instability at Millennium, which was dominated by a power struggle between its chairman, Jorge Jardim Goncalves, and its former chief executive, Paulo Teixeira Pinto, who decided to leave in September.

Goncalves will also be leaving at the end of this week.

(Reporting by Elisabete Tavares and Axel Bugge; Editing by Quentin Bryar)