For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 19, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Cognizant (CTSH), UBS AG (UBS), Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFY), Repsol YPF S.A. (REP) and Eni S.p.A. (E).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s AnalystBlog:

Cognizant Buys UBS ISC

Cognizant (CTSH) recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire UBS India Service Centre Private Limited for about $75 million. Based in India, UBS ISC is a captive service provider to UBS AG (UBS) and currently employs 2,000 associates.

Headquartered in Zurich

...

Following the test on recently found gas resource in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Venezuela, Repsol YPF S.A. (REP) confirmed reserves of between 5.6 trillion and 7.8 trillion cubic feet of gas. With an estimated area of 33 square kilometers, it is the country’s largest discovery.

Repsol (32.5% interest) partners with Italy's Eni S.p.A. (E – 32.5%) and Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA (35%) for future production on this resource.

While Venezuela aims to increase natural gas output to overcome the current deficit, Repsol wants to boost oil and gas production through new discoveries off the coasts of Brazil and Venezuela after four years of declining output.

However, a challenging operating and contractual environment in Venezuela may create obstacles for developing new gas reserves. Moreover, the mandate of the Venezuelan government to sell any new gas to the domestic market at subsidized prices may negatively impact

...

China North East Petroleum Holdings Limited today announced the acquisition of controlling interest in Song Yuan Tiancheng Drilling Engineering Co. Ltd. (Tiancheng), via a $130-million USD purchase.

NEP is a trailblazer in the privatized, crude oil production sector of Northern China, and is the first privately owned oil exploration and production operation to be traded on NYSE Amex. NEP has guaranteed access to Chinese markets for their crude oil due to an arrangement with PetroChina, and currently operates 4 large fields, including China’s largest, a 2,696-acre field with geological reserves estimated to be in excess of 37.4 million barrels.

Tiancheng is the largest PetroChina-licensed private drilling operation in China, with seven operable rigs, a 220-well annual drilling capacity, and employing a staff of 320. NEP’s move will add substantial revenue streams, gaining access to Taincheng’s customer base which consists of two major oil producers as well as PetroChina, its largest client.

...

Repsol YPF S.A. (REP) recently found a huge gas resource in shallow waters of the Gulf of Venezuela. The largest integrated oil and gas company in Spain said that the offshore field had an estimated area of 33 square kilometers and was 60 meters deep.

Along with its exploration partner Italy's Eni SPA (E), Repsol estimates that the discovery could hold between 7 and 8 trillion cubic feet of gas. This equals to more than five years of gas consumption in Spain.

While the two companies will have a 32.5% interest each in all future productions, Venezuela's state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA would hold a 35% stake.

Repsol is targeting stable production growth driven by pipeline projects in Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Libya, Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador. Long-term growth is expected to come from opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago, Algeria, the US Gulf of Mexico,

...

Yesterday, Petroleos Mexicanos (also known as Pemex), Mexico’s state oil company, said that it has awarded a contract to Houston-based oilfield service provider – Halliburton Company (HAL) – to drill 170 wells at the large Chicontepec oil basin.  Pemex said that the deal, worth approximately $159 million, will last three years and involve four drilling rigs. Halliburton is expected to commence work on the Chicontopec fields (in northern Mexico) from the next month. This will mark the oilfield services giant’s debut in an area where its competitors Schlumberger Limited (SLB) and Weatherford International (WFT) already have an established presence.  At a time when Halliburton, the world's second-largest oilfield-services company by revenue, is reeling from its heavy exposure to the natural gas-centric North American market, the Pemex contract allows the company to expand its international presence. Mexico is an important market for all oil service ...

[Editor's Note: In a market as uncertain as the one investors face now, it helps to have a guide. And the ideal guide is The Money Map Report, the monthly investment newsletter that's a sister publication to Money Morning. In fact, a new offer from Money Morning is a two-way win for investors: Noted commentator Peter D. Schiff's new book - " The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets" - shows investors how to profit no matter which way the market moves, while our monthly newsletter, The Money Map Report, provides ongoing analysis of the global financial markets and some of the best profit plays you'll find anywhere - including such markets as Taiwan and China. To find out how to get both, Check out our latest offer. ]

CNOOC Ltd. (NYSE ADR: CEO) …

With dropping oil prices and the current global attitude on commodities, Horacio Marquez of Money Morning recommends this offshore drilling company as a top performer in its sector.

This stock is just waiting to explode. He recommends you take advantage of this investing opportunity and says, “because of its strong dividend policies, investors will be well compensated while they wait for that oil-price rebound.”

This from Horacio:

In the face of the global financial meltdown, the price of oil has plummeted from a record high of almost $150 a barrel in July to less than $40 recently. And now it seems to be bottoming.

Clearly, this isn’t the precise moment to call a market bottom, but it is reasonable to think about a bottom around this range for a few reasons.

For starters, the forward curve of oil futures prices is showing a very marked upward slope, known in the commodities business as

...

China Development Bank, one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises, has agreed to lend $10 billion to Brazil’s Petrobras (PBR) in exchange for a long-term supply of oil - the latest illustration of how Beijing is using the global downturn to further its domestic agenda.

Money Morning first reported in January, that China was building stakes in some of the world’s largest natural-resource companies, which have been made vulnerable by depressed commodities prices, tumbling profits and falling stock prices. In the scant few weeks since that Money Morning report was published, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. (ADR: ACH), or Chinalco, has invested $19.5 billion in Australian/British mining giant Rio Tinto PLC (ADR: RTP), and China Minmetals Corp. acquired Australian zinc miner Oz Minerals Ltd.

China Development Bank has

...

Is Oil Ready to Skyrocket?

by Jason Simpkins Associate Editor, Money Morning

Editor’s Note: Oil has been in the news a lot recently, from its roller-coaster movements, to the international issues. Russia and Israel are both helping OPEC bring prices back up. And if 2008 is any indication, oil might be ready for another climb. Our colleagues over at Money Morning think that might only be the tip of the iceberg.

Oil Prices Could be Ready to Rally if History is Any Indication

Last year’s 54% drop in oil prices may have set the table for a rally similar to the one experienced in 1999, when prices doubled after a similar decline.

The so-called “forward curve of futures contracts” traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange suggests prices will rise 28% this year, according to Bloomberg News.

The current curve looks almost the same as it did 10 years ago, when Russia’s

...

Last year’s 54% drop in oil prices may have set the table for a rally similar to the one experienced in 1999, when prices doubled after a similar decline. The so-called “forward curve of futures contracts” traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange suggests prices will rise 28% this year, according to Bloomberg News.

The current curve looks almost the same as it did 10 years ago, when Russia’s default drove oil prices to drop as low as $10.82 a barrel in late December 1998 - a decline of nearly 40% from where they began that year.

At that time, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) responded by cutting output by 1.71 million barrels per day (bpd), an amount equal to 7% of the group’s total supply, setting the stage for a 1999 rally in which prices more than doubled.

Fast forward to the present.

...