Puts Purchased on Nexen Inc. (NXY)

Shares of Nexen Inc.

are higher on the session by 1.47%, currently trading at $22.02. The stock has been moving largely lower over the past six months, but recently bounced off of $18.00 and has now rallied above the 200-day moving average. Options traders are buying puts on NXY today. A short while ago the December $20.00 put was purchased 1,600 times, on the offer, on open interest of 5,125 contracts. The Dec and March 2011 $17.50 puts are also active. Overall put volume is now running at 4.88x the daily average, 85% on the offer. Nexen Inc. is an independent, Canada-based global energy company. It operates in three segments: oil and gas, energy marketing, and chemicals. The oil and gas operations include the UK North Sea, Canada, Syncrude, US Gulf of Mexico, Yemen and Other International (Colombia, offshore West Africa and Norway).