Oil firm’s shares surge 9% after speculation prompts takeover talk
Terry Macalister: Wednesday 30 June 2010 18.57 BST
A protester demonstrates at a BP petrol station in Manhattan. The company has been vilified in the US. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP
In the past an almost double-digit percentage increase in the BP share price would have signalled a spectacular oil strike. It is a measure of the decline in the company’s fortunes that such a surge was triggered by hopes of a takeover or break-up.
The company’s stock soared 9% to 331p at one point as a growing list of companies from China to Russia were linked with potential mega-mergers that could see the end of independence for what was once Britain’s biggest firm.