LONDON: Money managers and hedge funds have increased their bets on rising crude oil prices, figures from InterContinental Exchange (ICE) show, in a sign that some speculators think the oil market may be about to recover after many months of falls.
ICE data on Monday showed large speculators raised their net long holdings of Brent crude futures and options in the week to Aug. 18 after four weeks of net sales. Money managers raised their net long positions by 13,977 contracts to 139,866 lots.
This figure represents both an increase in long positions taken and also a decrease in short positions, showing speculators turned more bullish on the oil market as prices steadied in the week to Aug. 18 following multi-week falls.
But in the past week Brent futures prices have continued to fall, slumping to new six-and-a-half-year lows.
Speculators in gasoil futures and options also cut their bearish bets by reducing net short positions by 1,700 contracts to 1,189 in the week to Aug. 18, ICE said.
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