Alliance & Leicester slumped to a record low on Tuesday after one of the City’s most bearish banking analysts advised clients to keep on selling.

Shares in the mortgage lender, which started the year at 648p, fell a further 13.6 per cent to 214¾p as Sandy Chen of Panmure Gordon took the red pen to his forecasts – he expects losses this year and next – and set a target price of just 180p.