Bullish bets in Brent edge higher

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - Funds continued to rebuild bullish positions in Brent on the ICE exchange last week, but net-length remains healthily below the sell-off in mid-March levels, data from the Commitment of Traders Report showed.

Money managers added 15,862 long lots in Brent futures and options over the week to April 20, about the same as the week before.

Short positions gained only 2,273 lots over the same week, to leave speculative net-length up 13,589 lots over the week.

Total net-length rose to 305,744 lots, the highest in five weeks, but it was still more than 28,000 lots down from levels on March 16, the Tuesday before funds cut around 51,500 lots of net-length.

Meanwhile, there was a dearth of activity in European distillate futures.

Funds added a meagre 448 long lots and cut 861 short lots in Low Sulfur Gasoil futures and options over the week to April 20.

Speculative net-length was little changed to stand at 102,650 by last Tuesday.