A very interesting RNS for Xcite Energy shareholders this morning. Its been a frightening drop to the current share price from the highs of over £4 in 2010. With the current market cap at around £200 million with 257 2P reserves and with sentiment gradually improving in the oil and gas sector…

With the takeover of Nigeria focused oil producer, Heritage Oil, announced last week by a vehicle controlled by Qatar’s former Prime Minister for £924 million, I’ve been taking a look at Seplat another Nigeria focused oil company which recently listed on the LSE.

Gulf Keystone Petroleum shares are up 7% to 103.5p after the company was forced to deny rumours that infamous Chief Executive Todd Kozel was on the verge of being ousted and there was also news from the Iraqi elections.

Twitter shares are down nearly 13% to $37 a share prior to the opening of the US markets after a disappointing earnings release last night. The shares are down from a high of $74 reached in December 2013 after its IPO in November.

Well, well….Nigerian focused oil producer Heritage Oil has announced this morning that it is recommending a 320p per share offer by Energy Investments Global Ltd (Bidco), a wholly owned subsidiary of Al Mirqab Capital SPC.

A merger and acquisitions frenzy going on right now with Pfizer somewhat surprisingly not taking no as an answer with its intention to tie up with AstraZeneca and news over the weekend that Ophir Energy wanted to merge with Premier Oil but was rebuffed.

I’ve always followed the shares of Caterpillar (CAT), the global construction equipment maker, since the company always gives an excellent insight into overall economic health around the world.

It was a big day for technology earnings in the United States after the market close last night with Facebook and Apple both reporting earnings. Apple’s shares rose nearly 8% to $564 on its fiscal second quarter earnings and Facebook rose 4.5% to $64 on first quarter earnings as both reported strong figures which helped reassure technology investors after the recent Nasdaq sell off.

Plenty of news today from big pharma with speculation surrounding a Pfizer/AstraZeneca tie up and a major announcement from GSK/Novartis on an asset swap. Both are an illustration that the sector is trying to find its way in an increasingly hostile regulatory environment, where drug development costs are now running in several billions per successful candidate.

Many investors are wondering whether this is the right time to start putting their money back into mining shares after an awful couple of years. The Blackrock World Mining Investment Trust is a good benchmark for performance of global mining companies with 11.6% of its assets in Rio Tinto, 11% in BHP Billiton and 9.7% in Glencore Xstrata.