Shares nosedive after Irish move

Tension in Dublin rose sharply today as shares in top Irish banks continued to plummet and bosses at newly nationalised Anglo Irish Bank were met by protesting shareholders with shouts of "out, out, out".

The Irish financial system was in crisis last night after the country's finance minister Brian Lenihan ordered the taxpayer takeover and rescue of beleaguered Anglo Irish.

News that the Dublin government had stepped in to save it sent shares down sharply lower at larger rivals Allied Irish Banks, off 31 cents at 1.60, and Bank of Ireland (BoI), down 10 cents at 81 cents. Both banks are trading at less than 10% of their market value a year ago.

Anglo Irish shares, which value the bank at just 150 million (£133.3 million), were suspended in Dublin and London, where it has offices in the heart of the City at Old Jewry and a private banking office in Mayfair. It also has branches in six UK provincial cities.

News of the nationalisation saw an angry reaction from disenfranchised shareholders who were due at a scheduled meeting today to pass the Irish government's previous proposed bail out of the bank.

Lenihan said he nationalised Anglo Irish — the most exposed major bank to the cratered Irish commercial property market — because a further proposed injection of 1.5 billion was "no longer appropriate". He said he is going ahead with 2 billion apiece injections into Allied and BoI.

Anglo's chairman Sean Fitzpatrick was forced to quit last month after it was revealed he took loans totalling 87 million from the bank over the last eight years.