The virtual ``unanimous’’ support of the board for Morgan Stanley Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Philip Purcell does not bring him back the lost confidence of shareholders.

Purcell’s recent reshuffles made the situation even worse.

Late Monday, Purcell announced the decision to replace Newhouse with fixed-income head Zoe Cruz, 50, and chief risk officer Stephen Crawford, 40. This led to the departures of Vikram Pandit, 48, who oversaw Cruz as head of sales, trading and investment banking, and John Havens, his deputy in equities.

As a result, Morgan Stanley shares yesterday had their biggest decline since September. And the whole tendency, the company fell 40 percent over the past five years and made the worst performance among the five rivals, does not seem dangerous for Purcell.

``We’re in good shape,’’ he said. ``We already have the best brand in the securities business.’’

However, as the eight retired Morgan Stanley executives yesterday released a letter written to the board on March 3 blaming Purcell’s ``failure of leadership’’ and calling directors to remove him ``as soon as possible’’, Purcell’s trouble seems to be far from the end.