for a few fleeting hours thursday shares of cenovus energy inc one of canada’s biggest oil producers bounced back to highs not seen since its massive stock issuance to buy aseets from conocophillips fourandahalf years ago cenovus extended three days of gains to rise as much as 6 at midday to c1753 briefly eclipsing a price it last enjoyed in march 2017 before the company announced a c177 billion about 13 billion at the time deal to buy the majority of conocophillips’ assets in the oil sands and its canadian naturalgas assets investors criticized the cost and the scale of the share issuance to finance the purchase prompting an immediate selloff that cenovus has only now almost fully recovered from