Oil prices continued their rally with both Brent and US benchmark crude hitting 18 month highs following Friday’s non-farm payrolls data and more positive economic updates that came out in the US yesterday.
Back on Friday, US Labor Department said that 162,000 jobs were added in March, while the unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 9.7%. Yesterday, the ISM (Institute of Supply Management) said its non-manufacturing index climbed from 53 in February to 55.4 in March, signalling the fastest expansion of US services sector in more than two years, while the National Association of Realtors revealed a 8.7% in pending home sales in February.
Crude prices were buoyant last week amid a rally in global equity markets and a cheaper US dollar, which made dollar denominated commodities cheaper for holders of other currencies to boost demand. May Brent Crude was just short of US$86/barrel, while US light, sweet crude advanced to US$86.75/barrel.
Oil and gas engineering firms Petrofac and Amec advanced 5% and 2.8% respectively. US focused oil and gas junior Caza Oil & Gas led the juniors with a 20.5% rally. Ukraine focused gas producer, Regal Petroleum and North Sea explorers Xcite Energy surged 12.5%. Africa focused energy company Dominion Petroleum , North America focused oil & gas junior Pantheon Resources and energy investor Xtract Energy PLCclimbed 8%, 6.5% and 5% respectively. Eastern Europe focused junior Aurelian Oil & Gas also added 5%.