By Srinivas Chowdary Sunkara // petrobazaar // 6th March, 2023.
Brent oil futures prices for May delivery rose $1.08 or 1.27 pct to settle at $85.83 a barrel on London based ICE futures Europe exchange while WTI oil futures prices for April delivery went up $1.52 or 1.94 pct to close at $79.68 a barrel on NYMEX on Friday. In Shanghai, Crude oil main contract futures prices traded 9.3 Yuan up to 568.3 Yuan/bbl where as MCX crude oil front month futures prices closed Rs.71 or 1.1 pct up to Rs.6500 a barrel on last Friday. Brent traded at a premium of $6.15 to WTI a barrel during the session.
The world crude oil price index curves continued up show upside momentum last week. Both the benchmarks price clocked third strong weekly gains during the year on strong Chinese growth that may prop up demand growth. Oil futures traded strong during the week since expected demand outweighed bearish weekly numbers. Prices dropped by more than $2 on rumors of UAE leaving OPEC group to increase production. The prices rebounded to lower side after the rumor was disputed. On the technicals side, Money managers reduced their net-length in WTI futures and options by 9873 contracts to 174615 in the week ending Feb 7th as per CFTC data. Turning to weekly data, U.S drillers reduced 4 nos of oil rigs to 331 as per Baker Hughes data. Asian markets opened lower today after China set a modest target of economic growth this year of around 5 pct, lower than market expectations of 5.5 pct. OPEC report and IEA monthly reports due this week along with weekly stock numbers.
Good day to all.
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