Shares of Archer Daniels Midland Co. and VeraSun Energy Corp., the two biggest U.S. ethanol producers, soared on speculation that Democratic control of the U.S. House of Representatives will boost demand.

ADM rose $1.98, or 5.8 percent, to $35.46 at 1:35 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. A close at that level would be the biggest one-day gain since May 8. VeraSun surged $1.52, or 8.1 percent, to $20.23. Earlier the stock jumped 12 percent, the biggest increase since the shares became publicly traded in June.

``A Democrat-led House is likely to amount to a political net plus for the ethanol industry,'' Stanford Group Co. analyst Mark McMinimy wrote today in a report to clients. ``The political climate for ethanol in the Congress will shift from an environment that was already favorable to one that is promising for ethanol-friendly legislation over the coming two years.''

Democrats picked up at least 27 House seats in yesterday's election, ensuring control of the House in January, after being out of power for 12 years. Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who will take over the House Agriculture Committee, has promised to be more aggressive in seeking ethanol subsidies.

ADM Capacity

Archer Daniels currently can produce 1.1 billion gallons of ethanol a year and plans to expand capacity by 50 percent by 2008 to take advantage of increased demand for the fuel, made mostly from corn in the U.S. ADM said last month that ethanol profit surged fourfold in the quarter ended Sept. 30 to $177.6 million, as prices soared.

VeraSun, up 18 percent so far this week, also rose after the Brookings, South Dakota-based company's third- quarter profit surpassed analyst expectations.

The company late Nov. 6 said it had net income of $32 million, or 40 cents a share, in the quarter. That was 6 cents higher than the forecast of Pavel Molchanov, an energy analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. in Houston.

VeraSun's third-quarter results ``certainly helped to improve sentiment for the whole ethanol space,'' Molchanov said.

U.S. refiners and fuel blenders earlier this year switched to ethanol as the primary blending component in gasoline following changes in fuel rules in an energy bill passed by Congress last year. The Energy Policy Act requires refiners to almost double ethanol use to 7.5 billion gallons a year by 2012.