Updated filed at 0900 hrs

News that BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg had requested a meeting with US president Barack Obama was well received by the market this morning.
The oil giant’s chairman is hoping to find some middle ground with the US premier after a series of recent cutting comments over the company’s handling of the Gulf of Mexico clean up operation.

However, a question mark still hangs over whether the company will pay its dividend or not after BP told the Wall Street Journal this morning that no decision had yet been made.

BP was up 3.5 per cent by 0900 hrs this morning to 378.2 pence despite news that US government scientists had doubled their estimates for the amount of oil that had leaked into the Gulf of Mexico.

The revised estimate states that the flow rate of oil could now be up to 40,000 barrels a day.

Second best performer going in the second hour of trading was GlaxoSmithKline was up 1.3 per cent at 1,179 pence while Tullow Oil took the third spot, up 1.3 per cent at 1,135 pence.

On the losers’ list, the mining sector was in the red with Antofagasta losing the most, down 1.6 per cent at 858 pence ahead of chipmaker ARM Holdings, which lost some of the gains made yesterday amid further speculation of a buy-out.

ARM nudged lower by 1.5 per cent at 285.7 pence. Banking group Standard Chartered was down 1.3 per cent at 1,627 pence.

Top ten trades
 10 June 2010 (full day)
Source: The Share Centre

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Buy
1. BP, 36 per cent
2. Rockhopper Exploration, 2 per cent
3. Barclays, 2 per cent
4. Nautical Petroleum, 2 per cent
5. Tesco, 2 per cent
6. Sterling Energy, 2 per cent
7. Lloyds Banking Group, 1 per cent
8. Encore Oil, 1 per cent
9. Taylor Wimpey, 1 per cent
10. Enegi Oil, 1 per cent

Sell
1. BP, 9 per cent
2. Lloyds Banking Group, 4 per cent
3. Rockhopper Exploration, 3 per cent
4. Barclays, 2 per cent
5. ARM Holdings, 2 per cent
6. Sterling Energy, 2 per cent
7. Share, 2 per cent
8. Desire Petroleum, 2 per cent
9. Xstrata, 2 per cent
10. Royal Bank of Scotland, 1 per cent