Dubai: Crude oil, which hit its lowest level in more than four years last week, may continue to sink further this week.
“There’s still a bearish tone in the market. Crude oil would be trading below $67-68 a barrel this week,” Pradeep Unni, senior relationship manager with Richcomm Global Services, said.
On Friday, Brent crude settled at $70.15 per barrel, its lowest since May 2010. Prices are down 13 per cent this week, the biggest weekly loss since May 2011. Brent has decreased 18 per cent this month, the worst performance since October 2008 and is down 37 per cent in 2014.
“They will stay low in the near-term. I don’t see a recovery in crude oil in the short-term, though it would take time to return to the $80 and above level,” said Saleem Khokhar, head of equities at NBAD’s asset management group.
The 12-nation producers group Opec decided to maintain its collective production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day on Thursday, triggering massive selling in the black gold.
Opec did what they expected to do, but lack of clarity on future strategy will weigh the markets, Unni said.
