anyone got any ideas about the block trades that went through today?

website: http://www.sterlingenergyplc.com/



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Prop - this share is being manipulated like crazy. As soon as 24p bid pops up, up comes an AT sale or three to knock it back down again. Excuse my conspiracy theorist mind, but I honestly reckon that a bid could be on the way and by keeping the price down, the bidder is keeping the take out price down. Egg on face if I am wrong, but someone is keeping the lid on the price for a purpose. If they do allow it to rise then I reckon we could be looking at a swift jump to 30p (err... wishful thinking again?)

No Pondy - I have seen some stuff on this today, and I tend to agree with you.

I thought all last year the same thing was happening, and lets be fair once 17p was got the better of, it did rise to a swift 24 ish area.

If it is being held down, it can't last, one bit of news and it will take off imo.

SWW, Pondy,

If the scenario you speculate on contains any fact at all, and if I was HW, I would hasten out some news to try and drive the price higher before they can make their move.

I have always been a tad uncomfortable about the size of the Amevscap stake, but I guess HW knows about it, and possibly their intentions too.

i will do some market digging tomorrow...there may be a 17p placement holder dumping creating an overhang...

We finally have some movement. The 24p bid seems to be holding - for the time being!

proptrade,

Please let is know if you find anything, it does sound like a plausible explanation for the price being moribund since the Chinguetti production news.

was mad buy today...will update you tomorrow.

Rgds
PT

Building quite a head of steam on that 24p line - when she blows she'll shoot up to next range, 27-30p most likely, which is around the top line of the long-term up-channel from Jan 2003, ignoring the $97m fund-raising which caused a long sideways movement during 2005, which we are now back on track from. Part analytical thought, part wishful thinking. Given up pretending to understand this share, although the 17p buyer selling at 24p makes sense as an explanation of the last couple of weeks.

sd

my point exactly sir! i agree about the 30p...

Stockdog, prop,

Nice 650,000 buy at the end in the auction!

Well now we know why the share price has been held back. UBS have been off-loading a large line of stock. Last RNS said that they had 55.5 million shares (3.99%), whereas today's RNS states that they now have 42.5 million (3.03%). Let's just hope that the selling has stopped and that the price can start to make some progress.
This would perhaps explain the one or two large deals that have gone through recently, the X trades in particular. Mostly, it looks like they have been providing the stock that has been mopped up in the wave of buying since oil production started. Good timing by UBS - dumping stock at a steady rate at a good price without spooking the market - selling into a strong market.

But if the potential for SEY is as good as most posters (including myself) think on this BB, why would anybody want to sell at this time?

queen1,

SEY may have hit their target price, diversifying into sectors and stocks, maybe even paying some fund redemptions maybe?

As pondy says, at least they are selling into strength and not dropping the price.

If they took part in the 17p placing, not a bad 50% profit!

True Andy, but I've been hangin' in there since I bought at 7p as I believe they just have to kick on from here. Having said that, if they don't and the price dives I'll be the one with egg on my face and a hole in my pocket.

Queen1,

Well I don't expect any "dive" from here, and I'll be 'hanging in there' too, as I expect a steady rise from the current Sp over time, but certainly at a somewhat sedate pace.

shares mag says it could be one of the biggest risers over the next year or so, along with vpc, bur and dana.

By Barry FitzGerald
March 20, 2006
Page 1 of 2 | Single page
GARIMPEIRO

Advertisement
AdvertisementTHE Woodside-led joint venture operating in Mauritania's offshore waters is within a week or so of shipping the first cargo of oil from the Chinguetti project. Assuming all goes to plan, the shipment also a first for Mauritania will go a long way to easing investor concerns that the current spat between Woodside and the Mauritanian Government over the details of other offshore contracts of works is just that, a spat that will be resolved once the chest-beating on both sides is out of the way.

Max de Vietri, the Perth-based managing director of Baraka Petroleum, will not be dockside to wish the Greek oil tanker carrying Chinguetti's first oil bon voyage. But he might as well be.

As already well documented, the self-described extrovert with the Bathurst high school rock band pedigree is largely responsible for getting Australians involved in the hunt for oil offshore Mauritania in the first place, introducing Hardman Resources to the play. Hardman later brought in Shell and after it shot through, Woodside.

Fast-forward and de Vietri is now doing his own thing in Mauritania through Baraka, focusing on the Muslim nation's onshore oil and gas potential. The group's market capitalisation of $78 million (27 a

share) tells you there are big expectations for the stock.

Stand by for some peripheral deals to be announced in the weeks ahead covering the sweep of the group's activities in West Africa. But the main event for Baraka remains the drilling of the Heron 1 exploration well in onshore coastal Block 20 in Mauritania.

Assuming no delays from weather it can rain in the desert Heron should be put to the test by the drill bit in August-September.

This is a prospect that Texaco was set to drill until Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait convinced US oil groups they were best off at home for a while.

Baraka and its partner, the mighty Chinese oil outfit CNPC, have a consultant's report that ranks Heron as a 465-million-barrel oil target, with a recoverable potential of 132 million barrels (Baraka's share would be 35 per cent or 46 million barrels).

It is that sort of potential and that is all it is until the drill bit proves otherwise that will make Baraka a stock to watch in the months leading up to Heron 1 being spudded in, let alone drilled to total depth.

jimward9,

Yes good to see we are possibly only days from the first export of Chinguetti oil, and I feel this does provide some reassurance for those that had any doubts after the recent political spat between Woodside Petroleum and the GOM, even though this did not involve SEY.

jimward9,

And as if to confirm the above, we closed down today!

LOL!

its easy to get frustrated when a share has stayed within a 0.5p trading range for the best part of 3 weeks.
it is just as easy to forget that this share rose 40% in January and has virtually held the rise.
believe you me, this share has enormous upside potential.