malaysiangOil prices increased Monday over supply worries ahead of a highly-anticipated meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) countries on Wednesday, while improving factory activity in China also contributed to price hikes. International benchmark crude Brent traded at USD92.56 per barrel at 11.08 a.m. local time (0808 GMT), a 0.39 percent gain from the closing price of USD92.20 a barrel in the previous trading session on Friday. The American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) traded at the same time at USD91.28 per barrel, up 0.54 percent from Friday’s close of USD90.79 per barrel. Oil prices rallied during patchy early Asian trade over lingering uncertainties as market players focused on the upcoming OPEC group’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) on Wednesday. ‘OPEC+ JMMC is likely to recommend that production cuts are maintained at current levels, due to the uncertain economic outlook, and despite a clearly tightening supply backdrop, with weekly US EIA (Energy Information Administration) inventories likely to show inventories remain very low,’ ADM Investor Services’ Chief Global Economist Marc Ostwald said in an e-mailed note. A rebound in China’s industrial data for September also boosted prices. According to official data released on Sunday, China’s factory activity increased in September for the first time in six months, adding to a growing number of indicators that the world’s second-largest economy is becoming more stable. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Sunday disclosed an increase in China’s official Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) to 50.2, exceeding expectations.
Source: Philippines News Agency
