Catcher failure in North Sea and lack of shareholder nerve rocks Rockhopper

Rockhopper (RKH) got a bit of a battering today with a fall of nearly 5% to £3.67. No news from the company itself but as I posted earlier, AIM oil stock sentiment was hit by the North Sea Catcher field disappointment (http://contrarianinvestoruk.blogspot.com/2011/02/catcher-north-sea-failure-hits-aim-all.html).

A good excuse for the nervous to sell, for the market makers to mark the price down and for larger institutional buyers to fill their boots with cheaper stock. Some big late trades illustrate the point that a seller was in the background picking up shares and with a big budget:

£742,314 371.16p 200,000 16:43 Buy O
£559,500 373.00p 150,000 16:00 Buy O
£498,616 373.13p 133,630 16:22 Buy O
£373,468 373.47p 100,000 16:45 Buy O
£1,477,868 369p 400,000 16:54 Buy O

With buys of over £3.8 million after the market close, someone is clearly optimistic about the latest 14/10-3 well drill.  The spud date of this well was 13th January with expected 38 days to reach target depth, making it 18th February but it would be surprising if news was that far away given the rumours circulating in the Falklands.