City File: Lasmo backer

CAN this be a buy recommendation for Lasmo, most despised of oil stocks? Yes, says the bold Lars Reierson of Morgan Stanley. Lasmo 'could be the next BP' - shorthand for the fact that the same American investors who snapped up BP when their British brethren were bearish already own nearly a fifth of Lasmo. The pro- Lasmo argument is the same: considerable undervaluation compared with its American equivalents. With exploration teams active in eight areas, Reierson reckons that the first find could take the shares from their present 145p to 200p or more.