Bank of Ireland shares close at 83c

Bank of Ireland shares dropped well below the €1 mark today, closing at just 83c this evening.

The fall followed last week’s announcement that the bank is suspending paying dividends to shareholders, which led to speculation re-capitalisation may be needed.

Bank of Ireland shares hovered around the one euro mark for a large part of the day, before eventually plummeting to it’s closing share value, which compares to a high of €18 last year.

The bank was down 24% for the day.

Last week, chief executive Brian Goggins refused to rule out the possibility that Bank of Ireland may need to be re-capitalised at some stage, but said that time had not yet come.

The other main Irish banks didn't fare too well either in the course of Monday’s trading, where the market finished down 103.24 points to 2,570.58.

AIB closed down 30c to €2.65, Anglo Irish was down 18c to €1.11 whilst Irish Life and Permanent bucked the trend, closing up 1c to €1.56.

Elsewhere, Glanbia was down 18c to €2.38, Ryanair was down by the same amount to €2.68 while FBD was up €1.65 to €11.35.