** Weakness on heavy volumes in Royal Dutch Shell shares on Wednesday a departure from trend seen incurrent M&A wave which has seen, for the most part, share pricesof the acquirer rising when deals are announced
** Shareholders have cheered the use of cash to buy ratherthan spend on capex/R&D sending shares of the acquirer,particularly in healthcare deals, up along with those of thetarget company
** All share class of dual-listed (London and Amsterdam)Shell fell between 4.4 and 8.6 pct on Wednesday with a combined$3 billion traded across both exchanges
** One trader at a larger US broker says Shell is a bigoverweight in many long-only funds and investors sold down torebalance portfolios as rest of the sector rallies
** Likely issuance of equity down the line a furtheroverhang
** BG shares, meanwhile, close up 27 pct with $1.6bln traded making them the heaviest traded single issue Europe
** European oil and gas index closed at highestlevels for 2015, up 2.5 pct, but was down from day's highs hitearlier as Shell's dip dragged
** Index now up 29 pct from last December's 5-year lows
** Full coverage of deal (RM: vikram.subhedar.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)
BP (BP.)
