However this morning, the stock eased 1.5%, dropping 22 cents of the 66 cent gain achieved on Friday.

The unexpected buy-up immediately had analysts speculating on another Royal Dutch Shell takeover bid, a notion that was quickly dispelled by Shell Australia director John Simpson who said that an offer is not under consideration.

The speculation had been fuelled by the news that UBS had handled two unusually large tranches of around two million shares each. Shell has a 34% stake in Woodside.

In April 2001, Treasurer Peter Costello ruled against Shell's $10 billion hostile takeover bid for Woodside, declaring the offer was not in the national interest.

Late on Friday stock in Woodside had climbed 66 cents to $14.50 and has managed to hold half of that on early trading this morning, maintaining $14.25 at the time of printing.

The arrest of Saddam Hussein has provided some impetus to the market as a whole. By midday today the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was up 26.0 points at 3238.7 while the all ordinaries index was 26.9 points firmer at 3243.2.