Calm waters presented 3 heavy volume marlins in stocks yesterday

Take a look at the following energy stocks: HollyFrontier Corp, Imperial Oil Limited, Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and others showed higher volumes than usual.

Here's an update with information from the last trading session: Markets completed a mixed session yesterday while Dow Jones closed at 33,300, a 0.42% change. Nasdaq gained 0.5% and closed at 12,721.

Why trading volume matters?

Trading volume is simply the total number of shares traded including both buy and sell orders. If a stock has appreciated on high volume, it is more likely to be a sustained move compared to an appreciation with low volume. Typically, high volume trading sessions are considered significant occurrences and closely watched by traders.

While trading was mostly sideways yesterday, several energy stocks were actively traded. Here's an update:

HollyFrontier | 119% slightly greater than rolling average

Yesterday's trading volume was 4.78 million shares (surpassing the daily average by 119%).

Imperial Oil | 152% above rolling average

Canada's second-largest oiler traded as high as $57.87 before shedding 18.58% lower over the past six months. Imperial Oil is currently trading with a market cap of $27.41 billion with an average daily volume of 528,198 shares.

With 804,679 shares traded yesterday, Imperial Oil beat its daily average by 152% to cap off a frenetic trading day.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp | 219% higher than rolling average

Trading volume was 18.76 million shares yesterday — beating the daily average by a mammoth 219%.

— Average trading volume refers to a 21-day rolling average.