Goldman Sachs lifts UniCredit stake to 7.6%

MILAN (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs had raised a stake in Italian bank UniCredit it built mostly through various financial derivative contracts to 7.62% as of April 18, a regulatory filing showed on Monday.

The stake, held by Goldman through a number of its own companies, stood at 6.2% on April 13 and rose to as much as 8.2% the following day, before being pared back.

Borrowed shares as well as options and other derivatives account for nearly two thirds of the stake, so that voting rights refer only to 2.69% of the bank's capital.

Goldman, whose equities services include a market making role on derivatives, has been raising and reducing its potential UniCredit exposure over the course of the past month which has witnessed turmoil in the banking sector.

(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Keith Weir)