Investors again warm to oil stocks, sparking surge in equity fund-raises

• With U.S. oil steadying at ~$50/bbl in recent weeks, investors are beginning to believe crude prices have found a bottom, and public money is starting to flow back to North American oil producers.
• Investors have pumped $7.75B YTD into 16 separate stock market equity fund-raises - the biggest surge in at least seven years, and more equity than oil producers issued in all of 2009.
• "There was a two to three month window when capital markets were closed because everyone was nervous," but now things are turning around, says Tudor Pickering's Michael Rowe.
• In just the past two weeks, PAA, ECA, NBL, OAS, NFX, GDP, CXO, LPI, AR and TEP have stepped up with equity fund-raises.
• ETFs: XLE, ERX, VDE, OIH, XOP, ERY, DIG, DUG, IYE, XES, IEO, IEZ, PXE, FENY, PXJ, RYE, FXN, DDG