labels: Economy - general
Oil pares losses; climbs back to $98.98 a barrel news
30 September 2008

Mumbai: Crude oil, which registered one of the biggest falls in 8 years, losing $10.52 at $96.37 yesterday, pared early losses today, climbing back $2.50 to $98.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, on speculation that the US government will salvage its bank bail-out plans.

Crude oil for November delivery rose as much as $2.61, or 2.7 per cent, to $98.98 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract had fallen $2.50 to $93.87 a barrel in early trade.

Crude prices fell the most yesterday, losing $10.52, or 9.8 per cent, to $96.37 a barrel, the biggest slide in percentage terms since 15 November 2001. Oil prices are set to register a record 30 per cent drop in the current quarter.

North Sea Brent crude for November climbed back as much as $2.87, or 3.1 per cent, to $96.85 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Oil has fallen about 35 per cent since its $147 peak in mid-July, amid signs that high energy prices and the US financial crisis have cut into crude demand in the US and other industrialised countries.

Oil prices have also been hit by the speculators deserting commodities they had picked up earlier in the wake of the US financial crisis and as a hedge against inflation and a weak dollar.

Although the US House voted 228-205 to reject the bill to bail out failed US bans and revive investor confidence in the markets, the US lawmakers are expected to find new ways of reviving the rescue plan in some other form.


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Oil pares losses; climbs back to $98.98 a barrel