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Oil Welcomes Worldwide Policy Easing

  • Crude oil futures extended its gain, rallying above $100 a barrel in Asia as investors welcome monetary policy easing in China and moves by other central banks to ease dollar funding costs.The U.S. Federal Reserve and the central banks of the euro area, Canada, the U.K., Japan and Switzerland announced Wednesday that they had agreed to reduce the cost of offering dollar financing through swap arrangements.Further helping Chinese lenders, the People's Bank of China late Wednesday cut its reserve requirement ratio for large banks by 50 basis points, to 21%, effective Dec. 5. It was the first time the central bank had cut the reserve ratio for such lenders since December 2008, and followed a modest easing for small rural banks last month.
  • NYMEX light sweet oil futures are up 0.33% to $ 100.6 per barrel in Asia electronic trades today. U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 3.9 million barrels in the week ending Friday, Nov. 25, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Crude oil inventories rose to 334.7 million barrels in the latest report.Supplies remain in the upper limit for the average range for this time of year, the agency said. The EIA said the national average price of regular gasoline fell by 6.1 cent in the week to $3.307 per gallon Nov. 28, which put the price of gasoline 45.1 cents above the price during the same week of 2010.MCX benchmark crude futures may start today's session above Rs 5220 levels with resistance near Rs 5270 levels.

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