Rolls-Royce shares doubles in value

Rolls-Royce shares were on a roll as investors bet on the takeover and the engineering giant’s continued recovery from the coronavirus pandemic induce share slump.

Roll’s share price has risen more than 100 per cent in just two weeks after it revealed plans to shore up its balance sheet by £6 billion at the end of September.

Traders and investors are also taking into account rival BAE System’s takeover of the engine-maker should it run into any more trouble.

Merger and acquisitions activity is on fire at the moment and the Government would be loath to see Rolls fall into foreign hands, as two companies are doing complementary businesses and a tie-up would make sense given Rolls‘s unique aerospace capabilities.

Rolls shares added 9p at 235p.

The rotation into riskier stocks was also at full speed with investors snapping up BP and Shell. Traders and analysts are hunting for value stocks as hopes grow for vaccines.

BP was up 6.5p at 207.9p and Shell gained 34p at 948p and FTSE100 added 63.31 points to 5848.98.

Shares in London Stock Exchange Group were also on the slide, down 26p at 8490p.