Funds recover bullish bets in ICE Brent

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - Funds added bullish bets and cut bearish bets in Brent on the ICE exchange last week, recovering the net-length lost in the first week of April, the Commitment of Traders Report shows.

But speculative interest has not recovered to levels seen between mid-February and mid-March.

Funds added almost 16,000 long lots and cut almost 6,750 short lots in Brent futures and options over the week to April 13.

Speculative net-length in Brent gained 22,654 lots over the week, slightly more than the 20,278 lots cut over the week to April 6.

But overall fund length in Brent only increased to 371,212 lots, still slightly lower than levels seen in the second half of March, and 43,000 lots below this year's peak on February 23.

Funds have cut their bearish exposure to ICE Brent over the last four weeks, but the total shorts of 79,057 lots is 27,870 lots higher than this year's low on February 2.

Funds were holding 4.7 long lots to every short lot on April 13 compared to a ratio of 7.76 on February 2.

But the news of the vaccine rollout has revived speculative interest in European distillate futures.

Funds added just under 4,000 long lots in Low Sulfur Gasoil futures on the ICE bourse over the week to April 13, bringing the total to 119,835 lots, the highest this year.

Short lots gained 1,165 lots over the same week.

Speculative net-length in the ultra-low sulfur diesel-based future gained 2,811 lots to a total of 103,063 lots, the second-highest this year and down only around 3,000 lots from the peak in mid-March.