SINGAPORE, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Crude oil and base metals extended their losses, with oil falling for the fifth day running and aluminium at its weakest in three years as rising inventories of industrial raw materials underline soft demand.
Oil fell below $53 on Thursday after U.S. crude inventories climbed twice as much as expected overnight, while copper and aluminium fell to their lowest in years, also weighed down by surging stockpiles.
U.S. light crude for December delivery CLc1, due to expire later on Thursday, fell 77 cents or 1.4 percent to $52.85 a barrel at 0616 GMT, after falling to the lowest since Jan. 22, 2007 in the previous session. [O/R]
London Metal Exchange copper MCU3 for delivery in three months fell $80 to $3,510 a tonne and aluminium MAL3 sank to $1,852, new three-year lows for both metals. Shanghai copper hit its 4 percent downside and a four-year low. [MET/L]
"The lack of any positive news on the demand front as well as continued global economic turmoil continue to result in a dearth of bullish news," said Jonathan Kornafel, Asia director of Hudson Capital Energy.
A record low for U.S. housing starts, surging inventories, plummeting equity markets and a dollar-firming flight to safety over growing uncertainty whether U.S. automakers will win emergency government loans all weighed on sentiment.
U.S. crude oil inventories rose 1.6 million barrels last week, twice analysts' expectations, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.
LME stocks of aluminium rose 81,975 tonnes to more than 1.7 million tonnes -- the highest inventory level since January 1995 and stocks were expected to hit 2 million tonnes before the end of the year, enough for around three weeks of world consumption.
GRAINS GLIDE LOWER, GOLD GLISTENS
Chicago corn and soybean futures also chalked more losses. CBOT corn for delivery in December CZ8 fell 1.8 percent, or 6.75 cents, to $3.72 per bushel while January soybeans SF9 were down 1.11 percent, or 10 cents lower, at $8.87 per bushel by 0702 GMT.
Corn lost 1-¼ cents and soybeans ended 5 cents lower in overnight U.S. trade. [GRA/]
Traders expect Thursday's U.S. Agriculture Department weekly export sales report to show another week of lacklustre trade in corn and wheat [ID:nN06683673] while soybean sales are likely to be relatively strong.
Only gold was firm, holding near its strongest in more than a week, as bargain hunting from investors and jewellers in Asia helped the metal defy selling pressure from weak oil prices and slumping equities. [GOL/]
Recent gains in the yen against the U.S. dollar spurred buying from speculators in Japan, while physical demand kept premiums for gold bars steady in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
Gold rose to $737.80 an ounce, up $5.40 from late New York levels on Wednesday, when it hit an intraday high of $762.30 an ounce due to early gains in oil.
"I think people in Asia are happy to buy at below $750. People are happy to buy at these levels because they still think the banking sector is not safe," said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong.
"Even though governments say they will guarantee savings, people are shifting some money from banks to buy physical (gold)," he said.
Equity markets turned south in a hurry, with the MSCI All-Country World Index at its lowest since May 2003, the Nikkei .N225 off 6.9 percent and other Asian indexes down 4 percent.
"Resource equities are taking a caning. BHP (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) and Rio (RIO.AX: Quote, Profile, Research) are down 8 or 9 percent in Sydney. Those are terrible numbers," a commodities trader in Sydney said.
"One of our clients, taking on long positions in the big miners, has given up, There is just no confidence in anything anymore," he said. (Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt, Naveen Thukral and Lewa Pardomuan in SINGAPORE; Editing by Ben Tan)
