London

MASSIVE short covering from hedge funds and other bears boosted oil prices and global share markets on Thursday and Friday.

The purchases followed extensive short sales towards the end of last year. Billionaire speculator and investor George Soros illustrated what he and hedge fund colleagues had been doing by disclosing at the World Economic Forum in Davos that his fund had sold the S&P 500 index and emerging market currencies short in December and had purchased US Treasury bonds.