The steep climb was evocative of the rally in shares of GameStop and other so-called meme stocks earlier this year. Shares of Avis Budget Group Inc surged on Tuesday as retail investors rushed to get a piece of the heavily-shorted US car rental company, giving a possible $5bn boost to activist hedge fund SRS Investment Management, which has been the company’s biggest investor for about 10 years. Avis gained after quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates. Avis executives also said the company has been in talks with manufacturers about its plans to add more electric vehicles to its fleet.