Occidental’s 104-Million Trading Volume Sets Record for Single Day

More than 104 million shares of Occidental Petroleum changed hands Friday on the New York Stock Exchange, setting a new single-day record for trading in a single stock.

In all, the 104,253,200 million shares traded of Los Angeles-based Occidental were greater than the volume for all stock bought and sold May 23 on the NYSE, when total Big Board volume was just 102.6 million. The Occidental total on Friday surpassed the previous volume record for a single stock set June 8, when about 97 million shares of San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric changed hands.

The price rose only modestly in spite of the huge volume, closing at $26.875, up 12.5 cents from Thursday.

The trading in Occidental was primarily spurred by big institutional investors who snapped up the stock, according to analysts. Investors who acquired the shares Friday will be recorded in time to qualify for Occidental’s hefty second-quarter dividend of 62.5 cents per share, analysts said. Among those buying large share blocks were Japanese institutional investors.

Occidental’s issue of more than 51 million new shares last Tuesday--the largest sale of shares ever--could have generated some new interest in the oil company, according to John Ryan, an analyst and consultant at Petro Dynamics.