Shares of BP PLC rallied Monday, leading Britain’s benchmark stock index higher after the oil group announced a settlement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The FTSE 100 index rose 1.2% to 5,532 in morning trading. It gained 3.1% last week, advancing for a third week.
BP’s shares (BP) surged 5% and were the biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 Monday.
The gains came after Anadarko (APC) and BP announced they have agreed to settle their dispute tied to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil-rig disaster. Anadarko, the Houston energy major, will pay BP $4 billion and the two companies will mutually drop their claims against each other.
In the insurance sector, Aviva PLC gained 4.8% after the firm was upgraded to buy from neutral at UBS, which said that the stock’s recent underperformance should be reversed if euro-zone policy makers are able to bring the debt crisis under control.
“So far, though, the stock’s bounce has lagged those of European peers such as Axa and Allianz,” UBS said in a note to clients.
Mining shares rose along with metals prices. Vedanta Resources PLC rose 3.3% and Rio Tinto PLC gained 3.2%.
On the downside, shares of security firm G4S PLC sank nearly 17% and were the biggest decliner in the FTSE. G4S said it will buy Denmark’s ISS A/S for an enterprise value of 5.2 billion pounds ($8.2 billion). It also announced a rights issue at 122 pence to raise £2 billion.
London, October 17, 2011 (Dow Jones)
