Oil prices bounce back above $63

20 July 2009

Crude oil prices posted their first weekly gain in more than a month after climbing above $63 (£38.23) a barrel on Friday.

US crude for August delivery rose by $1.54 to settle at $63.56 a barrel, while London Brent crude for September closed at $65.38 - up $1.63 on the previous day.

The gains came on the back of a US government report which showed a bigger-than-expected increase in the number of new homes in the country, fuelling hopes that the world economy could be on the road to recovery.

Phil Flynn, analyst at PFGBest Research, told Reuters: "Oil is rebounding because there's a sense we have probably overplayed pessimism about the economy lately and prices had fallen too far."

Friday's gains marked an overall price increase of just over six per cent during the course of the week, helping to partially cancel out last week's falls of nearly 11 per cent.

Home heating oil customers have seen values more than double since the turn of the year, when crude was trading at less than $33 a barrel.

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