IRISH FINANCIAL stocks are likely to open weaker this morning following a sharp deterioration in their valuation in the London market yesterday.

Each of the main Irish financials lost value amid deep concern about the fiscal well-being of British lender Bradford Bingley, which lowered the price of a rights offering and took a £179 million (€226.6 million) capital injection from buyout firm TPG as its bad loans increase.

The worst hit of the Irish financials was Bank of Ireland, whose stock declined 7.14 per cent to finish down 57 cent at €7.41.

Anglo Irish Bank suffered badly also, losing 6.95 per cent to finish 57 cent weaker at €7.63. Irish Life Permanent was down 4.48 per cent at €10.66, down 50 cent.

Allied Irish Bank lost ground, to a lesser extent. The stock fell 2.43 per cent to close 31 cent lower at €12.46.

The eight-member FTSE 350 Banks Index fell 1.7 per cent, led by Bradford Bingley, which dropped 24 per cent to 67 pence. HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender and the owner of Bank of Scotland (Ireland) declined 10 per cent to £3.60.

TPG's purchase of a 23 per cent stake in Bradford Bingley comes almost nine months after the British government bailed out rival home-loan provider Northern Rock. The Bank of England said mortgage approvals dropped in April to their lowest in at least nine years.

Like their Irish counterparts, British banks are curtailing lending amid higher borrowing costs and a housing slump that may be the worst since 1991.

• Shares in Ryanair, which this morning publishes results for the year to March, dropped 3.13 per cent in London after a warning that the global airline industry may record combined losses of up to $6.1 billion (€3.92 billion) this year due to the oil spike and weak economic growth.

With the Dublin market shut for the bank holiday, Ryanair's stock closed 9 cent weaker at €2.63½ on the London exchange.

Analysts at Goodbody Stockbrokers expect Ryanair to report a 19 per cent drop to €23 million in fourth quarter operating profits and a 12 per cent rise in annual operating profits to €529 million. Of greater interest, however, will be its statement on the outlook for trading in the current fiscal year.

The airline said yesterday that the number of seats sold in May rose 22 per cent to 5.06 million compared with the same month last year.