By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
SYDNEY (MarketWatch) — Nymex benchmark light sweet crude-oil futures inched higher in electronic trading during Asian hours Thursday, extending gains made this week as tensions continued to simmer in the Middle East.
The front-month contract (CLH11 85.10, +0.11, +0.13%) rose 10 cents to $85.09 in Asian trading on Thursday, extending a 67-cent gain made Wednesday amid reports that Iran was sending warships to Syria via the Suez canal. The reports were later denied by Egyptian canal authorities.
Thursday’s developments in the region included the break-up of an encampment of demonstrators in Bahrain by police, according to a Financial Times report.
The protesters had been demanding greater political freedom, according to the report.
“Mideast tensions [are] providing something of a short-term prop,” said energy analysts at MF Global.
They are looking for further gains in the energy sector, at least in the short term.
“It seems that investors are content buying the dips, and we likely will see energy prices (at least in the Brent complex) maintain their gains for little while longer,” the analysts said.
