LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Shares of UK energy major BP rose more than 3 percent Tuesday afternoon, with severaltraders citing market talk of a takeover bid from rival RoyalDutch Shell.
Royal Dutch Shell declined to comment, while BP wasunavailable for comment.
"BP shares have rallied on the back of enthusiastic buyingon talk of Shell's interest in the company," said ChrisBeauchamp, analyst at IG. "But it seems difficult to believethat Shell would make such a big acquisition at this difficulttime for the oil market." (Reporting by Alasdair Pal, Atul Prakash, Tricia Wright, RonBousso and Dmitry Zhdannikov in London; Editing by AlistairSmout)