O petróleo está em queda, mas a incerteza continua em alta

[Lion_Heart]

MORTGAGE lender Alliance & Leicester suffered a dramatic stock market slide today as panic over the Northern Rock crisis sparked a major sell-off.

The company’s shares were under pressure throughout the day but fell more than 31 per cent to 600p after a late wave of selling before the market closed.

A spokeswoman said the company “knew of no reason” why the share price had fallen so sharply and denied that A&L had been forced to arrange emergency funding with the Bank of England, like troubled Northern Rock.

She said: “We have definitely not approached the Bank of England for assistance.”

While A&L has said that it faces “no material impact” from the credit crunch, stock downgrades from brokers at Citigroup earlier today contributed to the lender’s stock market woes.

Meanwhile Bradford & Bingley stock dived more than 8 per cent in the FTSE 250.

The share slide provides a considerable headache for A&L’s new chief executive David Bennett, who was only promoted to the top job from his former role as finance director at the end of July.

The group stressed it was “business as usual” today, adding that, unlike Northern Rock, its funding model was not over reliant on wholesale markets.

Alliance & Leicester sources 60 per cent of its funding from savings deposits, leaving it less reliant on the crisis-hit debt markets, said analysts.