LONDON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - BP shares were set fortheir worst one-day fall on Thursday since June 2010 after ajudge in the United States said the oil major had been negligentin events leading up to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf ofMexico.
BP was down by 6 percent at 454.35 pence going into theclose of trading in London, making the stock the worst-performeron Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 index.
BP's drop is poised to be the worst single-day percentagefall since June 2010, a particularly volatile month for itsshares which were hit by the fallout from the Deepwater Horizonoil spill in the Gulf of Mexico earlier that year.
"Obviously the market's not taken it well and it was alittle bit unexpected but you would expect BP to appeal thelevel of the fines, the decision made," said Manoj Ladwa, headof trading at TJM Partners.
"It is a short-term concern, longer term BP is cashgenerative and I'm sure they'll have the funds to pay for this."
The fall in BP's shares wiped some $9 billion off theBritish company's market capitalisation. (Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Vikram Subhedar and TriciaWright; editing by Kate Holton)