AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 132.66 Increased By ▲ 3.13 (2.42%)
BOP 6.89 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (3.14%)
CNERGY 4.57 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.3%)
DCL 8.92 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.22%)
DFML 42.75 Increased By ▲ 1.06 (2.54%)
DGKC 84.00 Increased By ▲ 0.23 (0.27%)
FCCL 32.90 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.4%)
FFBL 77.06 Increased By ▲ 1.59 (2.11%)
FFL 12.20 Increased By ▲ 0.73 (6.36%)
HUBC 110.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.54 (-0.49%)
HUMNL 14.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-1.1%)
KEL 5.53 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (2.6%)
KOSM 8.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.95%)
MLCF 39.67 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.3%)
NBP 65.50 Increased By ▲ 5.21 (8.64%)
OGDC 198.74 Decreased By ▼ -0.92 (-0.46%)
PAEL 26.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.65 (-2.44%)
PIBTL 7.62 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.52%)
PPL 159.00 Increased By ▲ 1.08 (0.68%)
PRL 26.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.49 (-1.83%)
PTC 18.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.6%)
SEARL 82.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-0.24%)
TELE 8.12 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-2.29%)
TOMCL 34.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-0.32%)
TPLP 8.98 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.88%)
TREET 16.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-3.38%)
TRG 59.49 Decreased By ▼ -1.83 (-2.98%)
UNITY 27.52 Increased By ▲ 0.09 (0.33%)
WTL 1.40 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (1.45%)
BR100 10,614 Increased By 206.9 (1.99%)
BR30 31,874 Increased By 160.5 (0.51%)
KSE100 98,966 Increased By 1637.5 (1.68%)
KSE30 30,792 Increased By 599.8 (1.99%)

Oil prices fell more than 2 percent on Monday, with Brent touching one-month lows, as investors doubted that producing countries will freeze output to rein in a world-wide glut. US crude futures got only brief support from an outage on a pipeline that helps deliver oil to the US storage hub. Traders worried instead that US crude stockpiles probably hit record highs for an eighth straight week. Oil prices remain up about 40 percent from around 12-year lows struck in mid-February, although the rally has fizzled on growing skepticism about a proposed output freeze by major producers.
"It appears that the speculative longs that were enticed toward the buyside of the energy complex through most of the first quarter by the upcoming production freeze meeting are now heading for the exits," said Jim Ritterbusch at Chicago-based energy markets consultancy Ritterbusch & Associates. Brent settled down 98 cents, or 2.5 percent, at $37.69 a barrel, touching a March 4 low of $37.60. It is down 11 percent from a 2016 high of $42.54 struck on March 18.
US crude finished the session down $1.09, or nearly 3 percent, at $35.70 a barrel, after briefly rebounding on news of an outage on the Keystone pipeline that is among a network delivering oil to the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub. US crude has tumbled 15 percent from a 2016 peak of $41.90 on March 22. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major oil producers are to meet in Doha, Qatar in two weeks to discuss an output freeze plan. But prospects for a deal look dim, with the Saudis declining to participate without Iran, while Russia reports its highest production in 30 years just weeks before the meeting.
US government data on Friday showed hedge funds cut their net long position in US crude during the week to March 29 for the first time in six weeks. Analysts in a Reuters poll forecast that US crude inventories rose 3.3 million barrels last week to an eighth straight week of record highs. Adding to the bearish sentiment was data showing U.S gasoline demand down in January from a year earlier, snapping a 14-month streak of year-over-year increases.
Not all investors were bearish on oil. Jonathan Goldberg, who runs the $550 million oil-focused BBL Commodities Value Fund in New York, said crude was still in the early stage of a bull run, although near-term caution may be necessary with inventories remaining high.

Copyright Reuters, 2016

Comments

Comments are closed.