Pacific Rubiales says discovers more oil on Quifa Block

Pacific Rubiales says discovers more oil on Quifa Block
(Reuters) PRE-T

Finds more oil on Quifa Block in Colombia * Plans additional drilling campaign in 2009

(Reuters) - Canadian oil and natural gas producer Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp said it discovered more oil on the Quifa Block, located in the Llanos Basin of Colombia.

As a result, an additional drilling campaign, including three exploratory wells, will be executed during 2009 in the Quifa Block, the company said.

The Quifa Block is an exploratory block in which Meta Petroleum, a unit of Pacific Rubiales, holds a 60 percent working interest and Colombia's state-owned oil company Ecopetrol SA holds the remaining 40 percent.

Shares of Pacific Rubiales were up 19 Canadian cents at C$13.28 Tuesday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by R. Manikandan in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)

Anonymous Sells High Flyers Down -

YRI-T

Anonymous Trading
Permits Participating Organizations to voluntarily withhold their true broker identities when entering orders and trades on TSX trading systems.

An Empirical Analysis of Anonymous Trading in Equity Markets
Kar Mei Tang

This thesis presents three essays that examine the role of anonymous trading in equity markets, and its effects on liquidity, execution costs and market integrity.

The first essay presents evidence that liquidity increases, and order aggressiveness and execution costs decrease, following the removal of broker identifiers from the Australian Stock Exchange’s (ASX) trading screens in 2005. This is consistent with the notion that limit order traders are more willing to expose their orders when they can do so anonymously. Anonymous markets also attract order flow from nonanonymous substitute markets, but this effect is only seen in large stocks.

The second essay examines how different market conditions and trading needs affect traders’ decisions to trade anonymously. This analysis uses data from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), an electronic exchange where identity disclosure is voluntary. The results show that most trading on the TSX remains non-anonymous, as various factors other than anonymity — such liquidity, information asymmetry, the time of day and expected execution costs — are also important considerations in traders’ identity disclosure choices. The results suggest that informed traders are likely to use anonymous orders as part of their stealth trading strategies, in order to reduce their overall price impact costs. Anonymously-initiated trades are generally more informative about short-term price movements and, after controlling for selectivity bias, also have lower execution costs than trades initiated non-anonymously.

The third essay reports the results of empirical tests that examine, using TSX data, whether anonymity facilitates abuses of client priority rules by allowing proprietarytraders to conceal frontrunning activity. Contrary to investor perceptions, there is no evidence that anonymous orders are commonly used to conceal frontrunning. The potential frontrunning identified by the frontrunning detection models in this essay is limited to only a small number of brokers, and generally more likely to be conducted non-anonymously. In the instances where systematic trading ahead of clients does occur, there is evidence of a positive association between the magnitude and frequency of frontrunning with broker size, order size and informed (profitable) client orders. There is also evidence of some asymmetry in the frequency and volume of frontrunning ahead of buy- and sell-side orders.

These results have implications for market participants seeking to better understand how anonymity can be used to reduce overall execution costs. They are also useful to market operators and regulators interested in assessing the effects of anonymous trading on liquidity and market integrity. Finally, compliance officers and market regulators may find the results informative in terms of assessing how anonymous trading affects traders’ best execution and client priority obligations.

Toronto stock market was lower today

The Toronto stock market was lower late Thursday morning as mining stocks declined amid lower prices while investors were unimpressed with the latest earnings reports from the U.S. financial sector.

The S&P/TSX composite index lost 39.3 points to 11,493.5. The TSX Venture Exchange fell 11.15 points to 1,325.55.

The Canadian dollar was having a rare down day, declining 0.35 of a cent to 97.13 cents US after a weak U.S. currency sent the loonie up a full cent on Wednesday.

On the economic front, Statistics Canada reported that declines in the aerospace and vehicle manufacturing segments were largely responsible for a 2.1 per cent drop in manufacturing sales in August. The dip followed a 5.2 per cent gain in July.

Production in the aerospace product and parts industry fell 35.6 per cent while manufacturing sales in the motor vehicle industry fell 6.3 per cent during August.

Commodity stocks led the way lower on the TSX with the gold sector down one per cent as the December bullion contract on the Nymex eased $5.90 to US$1,058.80. Kinross Gold Corp. (TSX: K) lost 27 cents to $23.80.

The energy sector was down 0.32 per cent even as the November crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 67 cents to US$75.85 a barrel. Oil prices took off after the U.S. Department of Energy reported that crude inventories rose by 400,000 barrels last week but gasoline levels dropped by 5.2 million barrels while distillates fell 1.1 million barrels.

New York markets were also weak after Goldman Sachs said Thursday that it earned US$3.19 billion, or US$5.25 per share in the third quarter. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $4.24 per share, on average.

However, investors reacted coolly to the firm's results as revenue from its mergers and acquisitions operations dipped sharply from the previous quarter, reflecting the general slowness in takeover activity, and its shares lost $4.06 to US$188.22.

"It was interesting with Goldman (with) people sort of focusing on their M&A work because I actually think the M&A cycle is something that is probably going to persist," said Norman Raschkowan, chief investment officer at Mackenzie Financial Corp.

"But I think the financials have gotten ahead of themselves, in the U.S. in particular in that they still have a tough road – especially those that have exposure to commercial real estate."

Citigroup reported a slightly smaller loss per share than expected but said its credit losses remain high. Its shares fell 24 cents to US$4.76.

The Dow Jones industrials lost 15 points to 10,009.9.

Results from JPMorgan set a high bar for its peers on Wednesday, reporting a US$3.59 billion profit that came in well above Wall Street's expectations and sent the Dow above 10,000 for the first time in a year.

The Nasdaq composite index declined 9.35 points to 2,162.88 while the S&P 500 index moved down 2.4 points to 1,089.6.

Also depressing sentiment was world-leading mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. The Helsinki-based company reported a loss of euro559 million (US$832 million) in the third quarter, taking hits from a 20 per cent drop in sales and a one-time charge for the fallen value of its network equipment unit.

Nokia made a profit of euro1.09 billion (US$1.61 billion) in the same quarter of 2008 and its shares fell $1.73 to US$13.66.

Tech firms Google Inc., IBM Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices will issue their results after the market's close Thursday.

Other commodity prices were also soft with December copper down a cent to US$2.83 a pound.

The TSX base metals sector fell 0.9 per cent with Teck Resources (TSX: TCK.B) off 49 cents to $33.84.

Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. (TSX: IVN) executive chairman Robert Friedland says financing the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia is "the least of our concerns." And he promises no funding delays between now and when the copper-gold mine reaches commercial production in 2013. Ivanhoe shares dipped 23 cents at $12.58.

In other corporate news, Pottruff & Smith Travel Insurance Brokers Inc., one of the largest travel insurance brokers and third-party administrators in Canada, has been acquired by Manulife Financial Corp. (TSX: MFC).

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and Manulife shares declined 19 cents to $22.29.

Canwest Global Communications Corp. said it has been notified by the Toronto Stock Exchange that its subordinate voting shares (TSX: CGS) and non-voting shares (TSX: CGS.A) will be delisted at the close of trading Nov. 13 because of failure to meet listing requirements. Trading in the shares will be suspended.

The media conglomerate's stock was halted Oct. 5 when it filed for creditor protection under a mountain of debt.

In Asia, stocks had rallied hard, as investors caught up with the gains posted in Europe and the U.S. Wednesday.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock average gained 1.8 per cent, and Hong Kong's benchmark added 0.5 per cent, hitting a new high for the year during trade.

London's FTSE 100 index was down 0.32 per cent, Frankfurt's DAX fell 0.35 per cent while the Paris CAC 40 was flat.

Pre-T Hits Oil Buy On This Red Day Sell Into Rally

Pacific Rubiales says discovers more oil on Quifa Block 10:23 EDT Tuesday, October 13, 2009 * Finds more oil on Quifa Block in Colombia * Plans additional drilling campaign in 2009 Oct 13 (Reuters) - Canadian oil and natural gas producer Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp said it discovered more oil on the Quifa Block, located in the Llanos Basin of Colombia. As a result, an additional drilling campaign, including three exploratory wells, will be executed during 2009 in the Quifa Block, the company said. The Quifa Block is an exploratory block in which Meta Petroleum, a unit of Pacific Rubiales, holds a 60 percent working interest and Colombia's state-owned oil company Ecopetrol SA holds the remaining 40 percent. Shares of Pacific Rubiales were up 19 Canadian cents at C$13.28 Tuesday morning on the Toronto Stock Exchange. (Reporting by R. Manikandan in Bangalore; Editing by Deepak Kannan)