SHARES in Northern Rock hit a record low yesterday on the tenth anniversary of its stock market flotation.

The Newcastle-based plc saw its shares touch 144.5p in early trading, valuing the company at about £609m - a decade to the day from the former mutual's debut as a publicly-listed company.

However, by the close of trading yesterday, shares in the bank had dropped by more than 26 per cent to 132.1p.

The fresh low for Northern Rock, which is already stricken by rumours of a cut-price rescue bid, came as analysts predicted the mortgage lender would slump to losses of more than £100m next year.

It was reported last week that Northern Rock had borrowed almost £8bn from the Bank of England, which stepped in as an emergency funder to the UK's fifth biggest mortgage lender more than two weeks ago, triggering a run on the bank.

Panmure Gordon banking analyst Sandy Chen has now cut expectations from a £298m profit to a £120m loss next year following the bank's woes.

Northern Rock's shares were trading at record highs of more than £12 earlier this year, but soaring borrowing costs in the money markets, which the firm depends on for mortgage lending, have sparked its present crisis.

The previous record trading low for Northern Rock's shares was 159p, on September 25.

The shares closed at 163.1p that day.

Anthony Platts, an assistant director at the Teesside office of investment management firm Wise Speke, said ordinary shareholders would be feeling increasingly alarmed about the tumbling share price.

"If it keeps sliding like this, then as far as the ordinary shareholders are concerned, they may not have any value," he said.

"The worry is that it (Northern Rock) is going to be broken up and people will effectively be taking very cheap mortgage books off their books."

Northern Rock's woes began last month after it said it had applied for emergency funding from the Bank of England, in its role as a lender of last resort.

Panicking savers withdrew about £2.5bn from accounts held with the bank.

The subsequent slashing of its share price, wiping a huge chunk off the company's value, has encouraged potential buyers hoping to snap up the bank at a knockdown price.

Analysts believe Northern Rock may be sold at a discount to its share price.

"If there is only one buyer they can pretty much name their price,'' said James Hamilton, an analyst at Numis Securities Limited.