Crude Oil Update - Crude Oil Slides On Oversupply Concerns

Crude Oil Update - Crude oil prices fell by 1.51 per cent on Friday as a record build in US crude stocks stoked concerns about global oversupply, outweighing moves by oil producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia to cap oil output.

US crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week, to a peak of 504.1 million barrels, the third week of record highs in the past month, data from the US government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed.

At the MCX, crude oil futures for February 2016 contract were trading at Rs. 2,094 per barrel, down by 1.46 per cent, after opening at Rs. 2,101 against the previous closing price of Rs. 2,125. It touched the intra-day low of Rs. 2,084 till the trading.

However, losses were limited after the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the US last week fell to a 12-week low, remaining in territory usually associated with a firming labor market which raised the demand outlook for the fuel. US Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending February 13 decreased by 7,000 to a seasonally adjusted 262,000 from the previous week’s total of 269,000.