Oil bounce drives up Canadian, Aussie dollars

London

THE Canadian dollar hit its highest level in over two weeks and the Australian dollar hit a 12-day high on Monday as a bounce in oil prices drove a recovery in major commodity-linked currencies.

Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed on Monday to extend oil output cuts until March 2018 to rein in a global crude glut, pushing up prices by as much as 2 per cent and dominating morning trade on European currency markets. That gave the Canadian dollar a 0.7 per cent lift, hitting its highest level since April 27, at C$1.3609 per dollar.