Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 2): Brent crude oil prices rose to a near four-year high today as markets adjust to the prospect of tighter supply once US sanctions against Iran kick in next month.

At 11.00am today, Brent crude oil futures were trading at US$85.01 per barrel, not far off from the US$85.45 peak reached in yesterday's market session, the highest since November 2014.

Reuters reported that Brent has risen by around 20% from the most recent lows in August.

"Market sentiment was lifted by a last-gasp deal to salvage NAFTA as a trilateral pact between the United States, Mexico and Canada, rescuing a US$1.2 trillion a year open-trade zone that had been about to collapse," it said.

"More fundamentally, oil markets have been pushed up by looming US sanctions against Iran's oil industry, which at its most recent peak this year supplied almost 3% of the world's almost 100 million barrels of daily consumption," Reuters added.

Quoting HSBC in its fourth quarter Global Economics outlook, Reuters reported that oil analysts believe there is now a growing risk that Brent crude could touch US$100 per barrel.

The rise in oil prices have noticeably resulted in a waver in share prices of regional airline players. Hong Kong-listed Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd dropped 44 HK cent or 3.73% to HK$11.36 as of 11.07am today.

Singapore Airlines Ltd fell 5 Singapore cents or 0.51% to S$9.66 at the Singapore stock exchange.

In Bursa Malaysia, however, AirAsia Group Bhd rose 4 sen or 1.31% to RM3.10 for a market capitalisation of RM10.23 billion. AirAsia X Bhd remained unchanged so far at 28.5 sen per share with a market capitalisation of RM1.18 billion.

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