MarketWatch.com: Stars aligning for Royal Dutch Shell
Tuesday 28 June 2005
Rising crude price, index reweighting giving a boost
By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — For a company recovering from a scandal surrounding its overstatement of proven oil reserves, the stars could hardly be aligning better for Royal Dutch Shell.
Shell (RD: news, chart, profile) (SC: news, chart, profile) , like the entire energy category, is benefiting from record crude-oil prices that have now topped $60 a barrel.
And, assuming shareholder approval Tuesday of the merger of its Dutch-listed company, Royal Dutch Petroleum, which presently holds 60% of assets, with U.K.-listed Shell Trading and Transport, which holds 40%, it should get a lift from index funds as well as more active investors having to meet the company’s increased standing in the FTSE 100 index as well as other European indexes.