Economics Improve for Oil Sands Stocks

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 11:08 am EDT, Monday October 19, 2009

Rising oil prices have carried related equities higher recently, and oil sands stocks are making a run at the top spot.

Oil is trading near its 52-week high, with November delivery contracts crossing the $79 mark before retreating slightly ahead of tomorrow's expiration. Meanwhile, oil-tied equity sectors are extending their recent run.

As crude's price goes up, the economics of oil sands extraction get better and better. Among the more expensive ways to acquire the commodity, extraction from the sands was a tough business to be in during the recession. Now that the global economy is showing signs of stability, there could be more upside for the sector.

As a whole, the Oil Sands Stocks Index is ahead by 1% today. Over the last week, the Index has raced higher by nearly 5%, and it is outperforming the S&P 500 by 6% over the last month.

The sector's small-caps, Oilsands Quest (AMEX: BQI - News) and North American Energy Partners (AMEX: NOA - News), are leading today's rally with respective gains of 4% and 1.5%. The former is now ahead by 13.5% in the last month, while the latter has added just under 10% in just the last week.

Large-cap plays, Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ - News) and Suncor Energy (NYSE: SU - News), both outweigh the above by more than 100 times. Canadian Natural's 10% one-month rally makes it a runner-up for the period, while Suncor is a laggard across the board.

As of this writing, the Oil Sands Stocks Index is one of tickerspy's top-performing oil Indexes over the last week. The Oil Refiner Stocks Index is the industry's top perfomer for the period, helped by double-digit jumps in Interoil (NYSE: IOC - News) and Sunoco (NYSE: SUN - News).

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