BP shares bucked the downward trend in oil shares on Thursday as rumours resurfaced that unidentified US activist investors had the oil giant in their sights for a possible break-up and sell-off to rivals such as Exxon and Chevron.
Analysts said last month that the fall in the oil price and the £12bn settlement of litigation over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill could make BP an attractive target for a hostile takeover bid.
BP usually stays tight-lipped on such scurrilous talk, but chief executive Bob Dudley felt the need to pour oil on troubled waters last month.
"As a result of the settlement in the US, it's actually less likely that someone would want to acquire BP and it's certainly not our intention to put the company up for sale," Reuters reported him as saying.
That didn't stop hopeful investors pushing the shares to a day-high of 391p on Thursday, although they later retreated to end flat at 383p.
It was a microcosm for the whole index, which, having spent most of the day in the green, the FTSE 100 ended relatively flat at 6,568 just 2.8 points lower than yesterday’s close.
Chris Beauchamp at IG said: “Compared to the previous two days, today has been uneventful.
“A third successive intervention by the People’s Bank of China has had much less impact on risk appetite, and while European markets move higher, the FTSE and US indices remain fairly quiet.”
G4S (LON:GFS) was down 5.37% to 255p after it yesterday posted first-half revenues and profits ahead (albeit marginally) and in line with forecasts.
However, ‘actual’ numbers made for grimmer reading, and were riddled with one offs, including a £21mln in goodwill impairments and a £16mln restructuring charges.
Elsewhere, oil prices gave up some of their earlier gains sending Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) lower. A barrel of Brent was down 1.17% at US$49.08 while US light crude fell 2.36% to US$42.28
Jasper Lawler said: “With the price of crude oil back near multi-year lows, shares of Royal Dutch Shell were down over 3% and weighed on the FTSE 100 on Thursday undoing well received earning reports from Coca-Cola HBC and TUI travel.”
Soft drink bottler Coca Cola Hbc (LON:CCH) bubbled up 97p to 1420p on news of volume growth and margin expansion.
Tour operator TUI (LON:TUI) brightened 69p to 1,114p on strong third quarter numbers despite the impact of the Tunisian terror attack.
In macroeconomic news, US data was in line with expectations and, according to spread-betting firm Spreadex, “would likely have reassured the central bank after the Chinese hijinks of the past couple of days.”
Elsewhere data showed the Greek economy made a surprise return to growth in the second quarter of this year, confounding expectations for another fall.
The country's statistics office said gross domestic product rose 0.8% quarter-on-quarter between April and June.
In small cap news, IGas Energy (LON:IGAS) welcomed government plans which could fast-track planning decisions for shale gas and fracking projects.
New government measures will give local councils up to 16 weeks to either grant or deny fracking before Westminster steps in. Shares climbed 10.19% to 29.75 p.
Elsewhere, Venn Life Sciences (LON:VENN) was up 13.4% to 22.6p after revenues in the first half were 170% up on the year earlier as it gave an upbeat assessment of prospects.
Conversely, Lasndowne Oil & Gas’s (LON:LOGP) said its Midleton exploration well, in the Celtic Sea, has found gas but not in large enough volumes be deemed a commercial discovery.
The well has been plugged and shares lost 49.5% to 3.7p.
After the market closed, SeaEnergy (LON:SEA) said its shares, which were 17.6% lower to 8p, were also down on the news as it has an 18.6% stake in Lansdowne.