Oil prices move away from 12-year low

Oil prices rose more than two per cent on Friday following China shares higher after Beijing deactivated a circuit breaker mechanism that was blamed for aggravating equity market crashes.

Beijing had suspended equities trading as the sharp falls in them triggered the circuit-breaking mechanism for a second time since its introduction this week.

“As Chinese equity markets started to recover today, the oil prices rallied much altogether,” said Kang Yoo-jin, commodities analyst at NH Investment and Securities based in Seoul.

Chinese stocks were boosted as the yuan currency firmed in early trade after the People’s Bank of China strengthened its official rate for the first time in nine trading days.

Tracking this, Brent rose 75 cents to 34.50 dollars a barrel by 0743 GMT, near an intraday high of 34.72 dollars.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was up 46 cents at 33.73 dollars a barrel.

Chinese stocks rose on Friday as the yuan currency firmed in early trade after the People’s Bank of China strengthened its official rate for the first time in nine trading days.

Over the past year, the world has been producing 1.5 million barrels per day more oil than it consumes.

OPEC and the International Energy Agency expect global demand growth to slow in 2016 to around 1.20-1.25 million barrels per day from a very high 1.8 million bpd in 2015.