Investec has reiterated its bullish stance on oil giant BP, saying that the company's third-quarter results were 'much strong than we and the market anticipated'.

In its first quarterly announcement since the recent deal with Rosneft, BP reported a clean net income of $5,170m on an underlying replacement cost (RC) basis, well ahead of Investec's $4,020m estimate.

The broker said: "Overall, we have seen a much better result than the poor Q2 and the company has moved early on a dividend increase to 9c/share (+12.5%)."

Refining and Marketing (now known as Downstream) underlying RC profit before interest and tax came in at $3,004, a considerably better result than the second quarter, driven by better margins and good operational delivery, Investec said.

Meanwhile, maintenance impacts held back volumes in Exploration and Production (Upstream) but profits still came in well ahead of forecasts.

Production excluding the TNK-BP joint venture was 2.26m barrels of oil equivalents per day, flat quarter-on-quarter but down 3% year-on-year.

"Production is expected to increase in the fourth quarter as the maintenance season completes and the benefit of new projects continues, but offset partially by the timing of Gulf of Mexico and North Sea divestments expected to complete in the fourth quarter," the broker explained.

A 'buy' rating and 460p target price for the stock has been retained.

Shares were up 5.12% at 446.76p in mid-morning trade on Tuesday.

BC

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