Shares in Countrywide Financial Corp. dropped nearly 6 percent Thursday after it said foreclosures doubled in November and late payments continued to rise.

The Calabasas-based company, which is the biggest U.S. mortgage lender, reported that foreclosures, measured by unpaid principal, climbed to 1.3 percent, from 0.6 percent the same time last year.

Late payments of at least 60 days surged to 6.5 percent of unpaid balances, from 4.2 percent last year.

Mortgage loan fundings for November declined 40 percent from a year earlier, while average daily loan applications fell 32 percent to $1.9 billion, Countrywide said.

Countrywide added that it made only $17 million in subprime loans in November, compared with $3.1 billion a year earlier.

This also comes on the same day that the Illinois attorney general said it was investigating Countrywide as part of an inquiry into lending practices that the state said trapped borrowers in high-cost mortgages.

Mortgage rates, which had been sliding, went up this week, disappointing news to would-be home buyers.

Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages increased to 6.11 percent, up from last week’s rate of 5.96 percent, which was the lowest in more than two years. Until this week, rates on 30-year mortgages had been falling or holding steady each week since the middle of October.

Shares in Countrywide fell 5.5 percent to $9.95 in afternoon trading Thursday on the Nasdaq.