Here are the most active stocks on Monday mid-morning on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchange.
On Monday, the top TSX mover was
Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. (
TSX: T.TRQ,
Stock Forum). The stock slipped 0.3% and was trading at $3.56 on volume of 2.4 million.
The mining company had no related news to explain the high volume in trading.
Air Canada (
TSX: T.AC.B,
Stock Forum) was the second most active stock on the TSX. It lost 2.9% and was trading at $7.70 on volume of 1.9 million shares.
Today, the airliner was named best airline in North America by frequent travelers.
Alexander Energy Ltd. (
TSX: V.ALX,
Stock Forum) was the volume leader on the TSX Venture Exchange. It rose 5.5% and was trading at $0.58 on volume of 20.7 million.
On December 5, the oil and gas junior announced that it had entered into a definitive reorganization and investment
agreement with Richard McHardy, Albert Stark, Ed Wong, Fotis Kalantzis, Thomas Boreen and Michelle Wiggins, which provides for: (i) a non-brokered private placement of up to an aggregate of approximately $26.5 million; (ii) the appointment of a new management team and board of directors; and (iii) a rights offering to current holders of common shares of Alexander.
The second most active stock on the TSX Venture was
Africa Oil Corp. (
TSX: V.AOI,
Stock Forum). It fell 8.8% and was trading at $9.01 after 1.4 million shares changed hands.
Today, the oil and gas company provided an
operational update on its activities in Kenya and Ethiopia. In Kenya Block 9, the Africa Oil operated Bahasi well has been drilled to a depth of 2,900 meters, encountering metamorphic basement at 2,850 meters. A thick section of Tertiary and Cretaceous interbedded sands and shales were encountered with only minor shows of gas throughout the section and the well is being plugged and abandoned.
In the South Omo block in Ethiopia, the Tutule-1 well has reached a total depth of 2,101 meters. The well encountered a section similar to the nearby Sabisa-1 well in the upper portion of the well but the sands which appeared to be oil saturated in the Sabisa well were not present on the Tutule horst block feature with multiple volcanic units and shales in this section.
In Block 8 in Ethiopia, drilling continues on the El Kuran-3 well with the current depth being 1,978 meters. The well has encountered a 1,200 meter section of Jurassic Hamenlei carbonates, with some interbedded sands and anhydrite, with wet gas and oil shows throughout the interval, similar to the results of the El Kuran-1 well drilled by Tenneco in 1972. These reservoirs appear to be fairly low porosity and permeability and, as expected, will likely require acid or fracture stimulation to produce at commercial levels.