Get ready. The world’s biggest share issue will be priced on Thursday – and the indications are it will be a resounding success, at least for the company, Petrobras, and its controlling shareholder, the Brazilian government.

Brokers and fund managers are suggesting the offer will be between 30 and 100 per cent oversubscribed. And expectations of such an oversubscription appeared to have boosted Petrobras’s shares: as of 1500 BST, they were outperforming the market in São Paulo – up 1.8 per cent.