(Bloomberg) -- PG&E Corp. shares rallied after hours Thursday after a California Public Utilities Commission official told investors on a conference call that the agency doesn’t want PG&E to go into bankruptcy, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The call was hosted by Bank of America Corp. analysts and included PUC President Michael Picker and other commission officials, according to the person, who was on the call but asked not to be identified because the discussions were private. The CPUC didn’t immediately return a call for comment.

The shares, which had fallen 31 percent during stock trading Thursday, jumped as much as 42 percent after hours.

Investors are awaiting any action from Sacramento to help the beleaguered utility. The shares plunged in regular trading Thursday the most since PG&E filed for bankruptcy in 2001.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Chediak in San Francisco at mchediak@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Ryan at jryan173@bloomberg.net, Jeffrey Taylor, Kara Wetzel

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