profits ahead of last years.the company has 80% interest in a joint venture with china national petroleum corp(cnpc).market makers bought a lot of stock on friday followed by big buys on monday.profit taking on tues am then buyers back in pm.any views?

Would rather it just edged up in a stately fashion. Much better for the nerves than the sky-rocket effect.

Besties,

What a day!

Let's not complain about "sky rockets" when it pertains to FTO please!

Chart looks nice and steady actually.

Andy we all know what happens to sky-rockets eventually!!

Not really complaining cos that chart looks pretty solid. Bit nervous at the mo tho cos I'm a PET-watcher and TLT looks poised on a knife-edge after a long time rise. Had some nasty fallers lately; PRE,PCI,ROC,HNR,Grrrrrr.

Besties,

Well another good day for FTO!

9.25 to SELL!

I would like to see 10p mid now, to ensure no double top, see the chart above.

With regard to your 0other shares, PRE again failed to deliver after promising so much, and you were unlucky with PCI, although I think they will come good in time.

HNR I hold too, and still believe they will regain their former highs once they report a decent bit of news. They really do have some promising exploration sites around the world, I'm sure we'll be ok there in the end.

C'mon you beauty!!

this is going places, this has got the makings of a pay your morgage off share !! if you can hold yr nerve

Forgive the intrusion - a novice here who reads this thread and has a small holding in FTO - what is the significance of the 14 million shares traded with a zero time stamp please??

bhunt, good question. Don't have the answer unfortunately. One thing I have learnt is that there are trades that have delayed reporting, and there are trades that show as buys on here that are actually sells, and vice versa. This makes up or down movements in sp seem strange if you accept these trades as they are reported on here. The only way to gauge what is actually going on is to look at the direction of the share price as this will generally provide the true picture of what is going on.

The 14m trades that you're referring to are bang on the mid price at the time they have popped up on here, which is why they are shown as ? trades. Can't help you with the significance of the 00:00 time stamp tho.

The up turn on these shares are related to the recent good news or is something happeneing with the Blue Sky deal that we have yet to hear about ourselfs?

Agree something going on behind the scenes.

Thanks for the info Beasties

Fortune Oil PLC
17 December 2004


17 DECEMBER 2004
FORTUNE OIL PLC
('Fortune Oil' or 'The Company')

PLACING OF 47,713,467 SHARES TO DEUTSCHE BANK AG LONDON
TO RAISE 4,389,639

The Directors of Fortune Oil are pleased to announce that the Company has placed
47,713,467 new ordinary shares on behalf of the Company with Deutsche Bank AG
London.

The new shares were placed at a price of 9.2 pence each to raise 4,389,639.
Following the placing, the new shares will represent 2.60% of the Company's
issued share capital.

Additionally, Deutsche Bank AG London has been granted an option to acquire
23,856,733 new ordinary shares of the Company. The option is exercisable at a
price of 9.2 pence per share and expires on 16th December 2005. The option has
a price reset provision which provides for the option exercise price to be
reset to the lower of 9.2 pence per share (subject to adjustment to reflect
changes in the share capital of the Company) and the average of the closing
prices of the Company's shares on 12th,13th and 14th January 2005 subject to a
minimum price of 9.0 pence. If exercised at this minimum price the exercise of
the options would raise an additional 2,147,106.

The placing is conditional on, inter alia, the admission of the new ordinary
shares to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and to trading on the
London Stock Exchange's market for listed securities becoming effective by 8.00
am on 22nd December 2004 (or by such later time and date as Deutsche Bank and
the Company may agree). It is also conditional on the Subscription Agreement
dated 17th December 2004 between Deutsche Bank and the Company not being
terminated prior to such date.

Application will today be made to the London Stock Exchange and the UK Listing
Authority for the new shares to be admitted to the Official List.

Bruce McGowan, Executive Vice Chairman of Fortune Oil, commented:

'We are very pleased to have raised these new funds, which will strengthen our
ability to make further investments in the fast growing Chinese natural gas
market.'

ENQUIRIES:

Fortune Oil PLC Tel: 020 7589 2233 (UK)
Bruce McGowan - Executive Vice Chairman Tel: 00 852 2583 3113 (Hong Kong)
John Pexton - Deputy Chief Executive

ICIS Limited Tel: 020 7651 8688
Archie Berens or 07802 442 486

very quiet on this thread as this has become a very exciting opening for making some serious cash now underpinned by the bank at 9.2p this is on its way slowly but a dead cert as much as one can say ,but theres always the unknown !!

Well the news on the placing would explain the pullback today. It's not dipped too much so it looks like a nice amount of strength here.

Expect a few days of mincing about and then hold on for the ride....

DYOR,etc!!! (for you kellman!!)

2xmill buys gone thro someones still topping up

I WOULD HOPE IT WOULD NOT EFFECT THE PRICE MUCH AS THIS MONEY IS TO DEVELOP THE BUSINESS FURTHER AND THE CURRENT SUPPORT THEY HAVE ENJOYED SUGGESTS EVERYONE IS BEHIUND THEIR STRATEGY FOR EXPANSION.sorry about caps

i would expect more inst to get on board now as the bank has now given it the go head to do what ever their plans are which they must know about so i think its just sit tight and enjoy the ride next year

biffa,

I agree, FTO should hover around the 9p mark now, shareprices often retrace to a placing price, which FTO has already done.

Hopefully FTO will base build from here, until the next news arrives.

Andy,I am hopeful we will move on from the placing price rather than hover because not only institutions have got this one in its sights but fto will give further updates on natural gas deals and on bluesky sooner than later judjing by share volumes

gardyne,

Well I hope you're right!

I'm still holding, I feel China and gas may be a real opportunity for them, right time right place IMHO.