In full page adverts in France's leading newspapers, chairman Daniel Bouton apologized to Societe Generale shareholders as newspapers and analysts questioned whether a stay of execution granted him by the bank's board would last long.
Bouton offered to quit but was asked to stay on.
"I understand perfectly your disappointment and see your anger. This situation is completely unacceptable," Bouton wrote.
SocGen shares rose 1.9 percent to 77.25 euros in early trading yesterday, valuing the bank at around 35 billion euros. They outpaced a firmer market after falling 4 percent on Thursday.
The shares have fallen around 20 percent this year owing to long-standing rumours about its exposure to credit losses.
Outside the cloistered world of European banking, global investors largely shrugged off the scandal. Asian stocks surged in the wake of a higher close on Wall Street after US President George W. Bush and Congressional leaders agreed on an economic stimulus package to stave off a recession.
European stocks rose also, with the FTSEurofirst 300 index climbing 1.2 percent.
Antony Mak, a sales director at DBS Securities in Hong Kong, said markets viewed the dealing scandal as a one-off event.
"It's isolated and the bank can sustain the damage by doing a placement. It's well contained," he said.
But French newspapers made for uncomfortable reading for Societe Generale executives aiming to repair the bank's reputation as home to some of the world's most complex rocket-science finance.
And the respected Financial Times Lex column coined a new name for France's second biggest bank -- "ShockGen."
France's main business daily, Les Echos, said Bouton's position had been weakened and the bank was now a potential takeover target.
Societe Generale staff were "shocked and in waiting mode," one employee said in Hong Kong.
Rival bank BNP Paribas estimated that Societe Generale's trade exposure had been in the order of 33 billion euros and unions and a lawyer for small shareholders questioned whether the trader involved had been made a scapegoat.
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