PR: Crude Rallies On Positive US Data, Oil And Gas Stocks Gain In London
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.
Blue chip oil and gas producers were on the rise today with BP (LSE: BP) leading the way with a gain of nearly 2%. Fellow supermajor Shell (LSE: RDSB) followed, climbing 1.5%, as did BG Group (LSE: BG). Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW) and Cairn Energy (LSE: CNE) added 1.3% and 1% respectively.
Oil and gas engineering firms Petrofac (LSE: PFC) and Amec (LSE: AMEC) advanced 5% and 2.8% respectively.
Midcaps followed with the sole exception of Melrose Resources (LSE: MRS), which declined 2.5%.
Soco International (LSE: SIA) advanced 6% to take the lead, followed by JKX Oil & Gas (LSE: JKX) and Dragon Oil (LSE: DGO), which gained 3.5% and 3% respectively. Dana Petroleum (LSE: DNX), Heritage Oil (LSE: HOIL) and Premier Oil (LSE: PMO) tacked on 2.5%. Salamander Energy (LSE: SMDR) was behind with a 1.5% gain.
Services companies Wellstream Holdings (LSE: WSM) and Wood Group (LSE: WG) climbed 4.4% and 1.1% respectively.
US focused oil and gas junior Caza Oil & Gas (AIM: CAZA) led the juniors with a 20.5% rally. Ukraine focused gas producer, Regal Petroleum (AIM: RPT) and North Sea explorers Xcite Energy (AIM: XEL) surged 12.5%. Africa focused energy company Dominion Petroleum (AIM: DPL), North America focused oil & gas junior Pantheon Resources (AIM: PANR) and energy investor Xtract Energy PLC (AIM: XTR) climbed 8%, 6.5% and 5% respectively. Eastern Europe focused junior Aurelian Oil & Gas (AIM: AUL) also added 5%.
