SINGAPORE: Oil prices rebounded in Asia on Friday as traders snapped up bargains a day after New York's main contract suffered its biggest fall in more than two years.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in June, rose 58 cents to $100.38 a barrel after diving more than eight percent to $99.80 in Thursday the first time it had fallen below $100 since March 16.
The WTI's fall was its heaviest since September 29, 2008, at the beginning of the global financial crisis, when prices plunged more than nine percent, analysts said.
Brent North Sea crude for June delivery gained 92 cents to $111.72 after it slid more than $10 overnight.
Oil markets were recouping some of Thursday's losses as traders capitalised on cheap prices to buy back into the market, said Victor Shum, senior principal of Purvin and Gertz energy consultants in Singapore.
"Prices are up but this is not unusual after a massive sell-off, we are observing some market participants considering this as a buying opportunity," he told AFP.
Prices were also pushed down by a stronger dollar, which gained against the euro after European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet suggested the lender was growing more dovish on interest rates, Shum added.
"What triggered the sell-off was really the strong US dollar versus the euro when the ECB indicated the bank would not raise interest rates in the euro-zone," he said.
"That caused the US dollar to make big gains against the euro."
A stronger greenback makes dollar-priced crude more expensive to traders using other currencies.
However, Shum said he was confident that crude prices would remain supported "around the triple-digit territory."
"After all, the geopolitical issues that caused prices to rally 20 percent over the year has not changed," he said.
Oil had seen huge gains in recent months on the back of upbeat sentiment towards the state of the global economy -- with the United States posting positive data on manufacturing and jobs -- as well as uprisings in the crude-rich Middle East.
But sentiment has been hit this week after the US released a series of jobs figures that seemed to dash earlier confidence.
Phillip Futures investment analyst Ong Yi Ling told AFP: "Now that US economic growth is slowing, such high crude oil prices are not sustainable."
Ong added that traders were keenly watching the US jobs report to be released later Friday as a barometer for the state of the economy of the world's largest oil consumer.
"If there is a surprise on the downside, prices will turn bearish," she said.
However, a bloody battle between rebels and government forces in Libya as well as an army clampdown on anti-regime protesters in Syria highlighted ongoing instability in the Middle East and North Africa.
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