Jacob Kilstein | Source | Securities Analyst at Argus Research

PG&E Corp. shares soared $1.98 or 16.5 percent to close at $13.99 Tuesday after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection, despite the fact that common stockholders get wiped out in the vast majority of bankruptcies. Although it sounds like madness, it’s not unusual to see a company’s stock price go up after heading to bankruptcy court, as the filing attracts the attention of speculators, most of whom are “day traders on message boards,” said Jared Ellias, a law professor at UC Hastings College of the Law. But it is unusual to see shares rise 16.5 percent and a company’s market value soar to $7.3 billion as PG&E’s did.