Rome, April 5 - Italy's Constitutional Court freed Parmalat to go after billions of euros in potential legal claims against banks on Wednesday with a ruling that will allow the dairy firm to pursue revocatory actions.
The news spurred a more than 7 percent rise in Parmalat's shares.
The court, which has the final say in such matters, said questions of legitimacy raised over the claims -- which allow a company under certain conditions to claw back money paid to banks in the run-up to insolvency -- were unfounded.
A judge had referred Parmalat's suit against a group of banks, led by Monte dei Paschi di Siena, to the Constitutional Court in January over concerns that the law it was based on could violate the Italian constitution.
A similar case involving HSBC had been referred to the court on the same grounds in November.
Parmalat shares, which had been suspended by the Milan stock market awaiting a statement, jumped 7.25 percent to 2.75 euros when they restarted trading at 1235 GMT.
"It's a party out there with the shares. Volumes are very high. Over 17 million have changed hands and before the suspension only 2 million had traded," said one trader.
Shares in Monte Paschi were up 0.8 percent at 4.80 euros, just off a high of 4.82 euros as the index of leading Milan shares nosed up 0.4 percent. HSBC shares in London were down 0.2 percent at 966 pence.
Parmalat's new management has filed lawsuits against scores of Italian and foreign banks, hoping to recover cash from deals they struck with the group before it collapsed during a multi-billion-euro scandal in 2003.
Under Italian law, administrators can seek to reclaim money paid to financial institutions in the run-up to insolvency if there is suspicion that the institutions knew at the time that the company was in financial difficulty.
The banks are fighting the claims and some plaintiffs had argued that Parmalat, which was placed under emergency administration but never actually liquidated, could not use the clawback provision.
Parmalat has some 76 revocatory claims at the courts for a total of about 7.4 billion euros ($9.1 billion). (Additional reporting by Claudia Cristoferi)