The sharp fall in Bank of Ireland's share price on Friday was due to technical factors, market sources said yesterday.

The stock fell by close to 4 per cent in late trade on Friday, prompting some speculation that there had been trading in it ahead of the weekend announcement that the bank's chief executive, Mr Mike Soden, was resigning.

However, dealers said yesterday that the fall was due to technical factors, including the rebalancing of the Morgan Stanley Capital International indices. The head of the Irish Stock Exchange, Mr Tom Healy, said its systems automatically look at deals carried out before a price-sensitive announcement.