CURRENT ACCOUNT: Management at a number of the Republic's leading publicly-quoted companies have a bit of work to do to restore their credibility with investors after the drubbing of late.
Bank of Ireland's 15 per cent drop this week following its approach to Abbey National is just the latest development in what can only be termed an annus horribilis for the Republic's leading blue-chip stocks.
Heading into this year, Elan, AIB, Bank of Ireland and CRH - the largest companies on the Irish market - had weathered the global downturn pretty well.
But since January, each of them has come a cropper and largely in circumstances of their own making. Though in a league of its own, Elan's collapse amid growing concerns over its accounting practices combined with AIB's revelations of the $691 million Rusnak fraud to rattle investors earlier this year.
Just as shareholders were coming to terms with those bombshells, two of the market's most reliable companies - Bank of Ireland and CRH - have thrown up more nasty surprises over the last fortnight.
Add to that the fact that all of these firms' woes are in varying measures self-inflicted, raising question marks over management performance, and is it any wonder that investors are running scared?
