Goldman Sachs analyst James Chappell said he believed the top price would be 296p, valuing the bank at £1.24billion
but warned it could drop even lower if the turmoil continued. At its peak, in February, the Rock was worth £5.3billion.

One sector source said acquiring the crisis-hit bank, led by Adam Applegarth, would be akin to “buying a box of broken Lego”.

Nigel Terrington, the chief executive of specialist mortgage lender Paragon, said it was “awful” seeing Rock customers queue to withdraw their savings. “It has been hard to bear,” he said.

However, the Govern­ment’s pledge to underwrite the whole £28billion savers had deposited at the Rock boos­ted its shares 23bp to 306p.

Chan­cel­lor Alistair Dar­ling’s reassurance also lif­ted other institutions whose shares crashed on Monday. Alliance & Leicester rose 193p to 793p, Bradford & Bingley’s 16fp to 295fp and Paragon shares closed up 14bp to 300p.

It has been hard to bear