Crude continued to set fresh one-year highs in Asian trade Thursday, driven by a weakening dollar and stronger equities to rise for a sixth consecutive day. At 0620 GMT, New York Mercantile Exchange light, sweet crude futures for delivery in November traded 60 cents higher at $75.78 a barrel in the Globex electronic session, after touching a new high of $75.96 a barrel. November Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange rose 50 cents to $73.60 a barrel. A sustained rise in U.S. equity markets and a weaker dollar propelled crude oil prices above the critical $75 barrier to a one-year high on Wednesday, opening the way to the psychological $80 level in coming days, according to Dow Jones Newswires analysis of technical charts. "The trend of higher equities equals higher oil prices is still very much in place," said Mike Sander of Sander Capital Advisors. Crude was boosted further by strength in Asian shares Thursday, building on the overnight gains on Wall Street. But analysts aren't convinced that current high price levels can be sustained, as global stockpiles of oil products remain high and major producers continue to pump more oil than required. "The current rally may take prices higher, but crude will ultimately struggle to hold this level," said David Moore at Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Crude will likely continue to trade in the $65-$75 a barrel range seen over the last couple of months, he said. Analysts said a small, but surprise, drop in crude inventories reported by the American Petroleum Institute yesterday was positive for crude, although distillates stocks remained high and that's still a concern. The industry group reported a 172,000-barrel drop in crude inventories, a 2.66 million-barrel fall in gasoline stocks, and a 219,000 barrel increase in distillate stocks. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly inventory figures at 1500 GMT Thursday. "If the EIA also reports similar figures, it could be mildly positive for crude," Moore said. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires forecast that for the week ended Oct. 9, crude oil inventories would rise by 600,000 barrels and gasoline by 700,000 barrels, while distillate stocks would fall 100,000 barrels. Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for November, the benchmark gasoline contract, rose 285 points to 188.60 U.S. cents a gallon, while November heating oil traded 234 points higher at 196.61 cents a gallon. ICE gasoil for November changed hands at $615.25 a metric ton, up $9.50 from yesterday's settlement.

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