Cenovus Energy Inc., an upstream company, has been subject to a 28% share-price decline. Historically low prices for Canadian oil have unfairly punished the country’s energy companies, according to those who follow the sector, and that is leaving battered investors who are watching the losses pile up with a difficult decision on their hands. “I think there’s good opportunity to be had but you have to be careful you’re not grabbing a knife that’s pretty sharp and falling rapidly, because it hurts,” said Martin Pelletier, portfolio manager at TriVest Wealth Counsel Ltd. in Calgary. The price for Western Canada Select, the country’s heavy crude, hit its last major peak this year on July 13, when prices reached US$54.74, before falling more than 70 per cent to reach an all-time low of US$13.46 on Nov. 15. While the price has since rallied somewhat and closed at US$16.43 on Tuesday afternoon, that is still less than a third of the year-to-date high of US$57.99 reached in May. The decline has far outpaced that of the U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, which declined another six per cent on Tuesday and now sits at US$53.39 , down from US$71.03 on July 13. The […]
