BP shares dive again as Obama draws parallels to 9/11

BP shares continued to fall both sides of the Atlantic on Monday after the oil giant said the cost of the Gulf of Mexico spill had risen to £1bn and US President Barack Obama compared the environmental disaster to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

In London, BP shares dived more than 10%, or almost 40p, to 352.1p, while the firm's depositary shares, traded on the New York Stock Exchange, slumped 7.7% to 31.33.

The company's board is set to meet today to decide whether to suspend its hefty dividend because of the oil spill.

According to the oil giant, the total cost of its clean-up operation thus far totals £1.1bn - an increase of £350m over the past week.

Included in the bill are payments to the states of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for environmental damage as well as thousands of compensation claims, although BP said the final cost of the disaster is unquantifiable.

Meanwhile, the political fallout of the disaster intensified after Obama compared the oil spill's environmental impact to the effect the 9/11 terrorist attacks had on US foreign policy.

Speaking to reporters, the US president said: "In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come."

Today, veteran income fund manager Graham Ashby tells IFAonline why now may not be the best time to sell BP despite all the bad news.