Google Climbs 6% on S&P; Speculation

Shares of Internet search leader Google Inc. hit a record high Monday, rising almost 6% in heavy trading amid speculation that the stock could be added to the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

Shares of Google added $13.84 to $255.45 on Nasdaq. It was the biggest one-day percentage gain in almost four months for the stock, which briefly hit an intraday high of $258.10.

If Google, which has more than tripled in value since its initial public offering in August, were added to the S&P; 500, it could prompt more fund managers to buy and hold the stock in order to track the benchmark index, analysts said.

A Standard & Poor’s executive declined to discuss Google or any specific pending changes to the widely followed index.

“As a general rule, we don’t comment on specific changes,” said David Blitzer, Standard & Poor’s managing director and chairman of the committee that weighs changes to the S&P; 500.

For Mountain View, Calif.-based Google to be added to the index, another company would have to be dropped, he said.

Although New York-based Standard & Poor’s requires companies to demonstrate four consecutive quarters of earnings, there would be no bar to looking at Google’s financials before it launched as a public company in August, Blitzer said.

“There’s no reason why we couldn’t look at it,” he said.

Although Google’s potential move to the S&P; 500 in the near term would be considered “very fast,” there is also a precedent for the index to include a stock that has traded less than a year, he said.