BP Shares Jump 9.1% on Takeover Speculation

Hugh Collins
Updated
BP
BP

Shares in troubled oil giant BP (BP) jumped more than 9% in London on speculation that the company could become the target of a takeover bid.

Analyst Fred Lucas of JP Morgan Cazenove, a leading British investment bank, published a research note Tuesday outlining a possible scenario for U.S. oil company ExxonMobil (XOM) to make a move for BP, the Associated Press reported.

BP shares gained 9.1% to 330.7 pence late this morning in London.

The company's stock price has fallen by around 50% since the April 20 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 workers and sent oil from a BP well spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

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