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Oil prices soar amid optimistic outlook

08 May 2009 09:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Oil prices jumped to almost $58 a barrel Thursday, extending gains to near six-month highs on investor expectations that global economic growth may begin to rebound by the end of the year.
Some analysts, however, warned that the higher prices did not reflect market fundamentals but were the result of oil investors mimicking rising equity markets.
Benchmark crude for June delivery was up $1.58 to $57.92 a barrel by mid-afternoon in Europe, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract reached a high of $58.16.
The contract Wednesday rose 4.6 percent, or $2.50, to settle at $56.34, the highest level since mid-November.
In London, Brent prices rose $1.48 to $57.63 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Oil has broken above a trading range of about $45 to $55 a barrel that it had been in since dropping from a record $147 in July. It has lately been boosted by investor perceptions that the worst of a severe U.S. recession may be over.
U.S. oil inventories grew less than expected last week, suggesting crude demand may be stabilizing. Inventory levels for the week ended May 1 rose by 600,000 barrels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said Wednesday in its weekly report. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had expected a build up of 2.2 million barrels.
On Thursday, stock indexes across Europe were posting gains near 2 percent, while Asian markets also closed higher, including a rise of 4.6 percent in Japan’s Nikkei index.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery rose 4.94 cents to $1.6774 a gallon and heating oil gained 3.33 cents to $1.5046 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery was up 6.9 cents to $3.956 per 1,000 cubic feet.