BP raises dividend as profits beat expectations

BP raised its dividend while reporting profits of $4.69 billion, an 11% fall resulting from the impact of asset sales to pay for the Gulf of Mexico disaster. Underlying results were well ahead of expectations. Excluding one-off items, BP’s underlying profits fell just over 5% to $5.17 billion— easily beating the consensus forecast by analysts, who had predicted a 25% slump to $4.122 billion.