The FTSE 100 Index rose to its highest level for two-and-a-half-years amid market rumours of a bid from Royal Dutch Shell for rival BP.
Heavily-weighted BP rose 3% as traders cited vague speculation of Shell’s interest in its closest competitor.
The talk added to cheer over positive retail data from the US to send the FTSE 100 Index up 30.5 points to 5891.2, its highest point since June 2008.
The FTSE 100 index had been sluggish in early trading, but was lifted when the US Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.8% last month, beating expectations that they would rise by 0.5%.
Wall Street’s Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% following the news, which also strengthened the dollar and saw the pound fall to 1.58 dollars.
The pound also slumped against the euro to 1.18 following strong industrial data from Germany.
BP climbed 14.8p to 473.1p and Shell rose 28.5p to 2081.5p.
BP shares were also supported after it entered into an agreement to sell almost all of its exploration and production assets in Pakistan to United Energy Group. The asset sale will help the group pay for the clean up of its disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil sector was helped further by an upbeat note from broker Credit Suisse.
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