Oil prices rally; metals mixed

London

WORLD oil prices rallied last week, supported by a drop in US stockpiles, while traders on the metals markets took their lead from movements in the US dollar and Chinese data.

Crude futures rallied as data showed a much bigger-than-expected drop in US crude inventories, while the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) said demand would pick up. Oil prices had surged more than US$2 on Tuesday on expectations that the US inventory data would reveal a drop. The Department of Energy indeed said that commercial stockpiles of US crude slumped by 6.8 million barrels the previous week to 470.6 million.