Oil

Oil: Positive trading ahead of weekly data
Oil prices rose modestly overnight, ahead of the weekly US commercial inventory data due tonight at 10.30pm.

US benchmark WTI rose 1.76% to US$42.62 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent spent most of the trading session in the red before closing in positive territory at US$48.81 (+0.14%).

The inventory, which could provide insights into the demand situation in the world's largest consumer of crude oil, is expected to contract by 2m barrels in the week ending 14 Aug.

Following the 1.7m barrels reduction in the previous release (week ending 7 Aug), stockpiles still stood at a whopping 453.6m barrels, levels not seen for this time of year in at least the last 80 years.

Maybank-KE expects a gradual recovery in crude prices to US$70-75 per barrel by 2017. In the interim, among the few names that the house favours are Ezion (TP: $1.35), Pacific Radiance (TP: $0.80), and PACC Offshore (TP: $0.65).