Oil Prices to Near $50 on 2nd-half Recovery Hopes

SINGAPORE: Oil prices crept to near $50 a barrel Thursday in Asia as investors brushed off poor economic news from the U.S. and eyed a possible second-half recovery in crude demand.
Benchmark crude for May delivery rose 45 cents to $49.70 a barrel by midday in Singapore in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Wednesday dropped 16 cents to settle at $49.25.
Oil prices have clung near $50 this month as traders parse recent economic data for signs global crude demand could recover soon.
Investors are brushing off the current dismal signals that demand remains weak, instead eyeing a possible rebound in the second half.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Wednesday it expects global demand to fall to 84.2 million barrels a day this year, or 1.6 percent less than last year.
OPEC’s forecast follows a similar U.S. government forecast that said global oil demand will fall in 2009 to 84.1 million barrels a day.
“Demand hasn’t come back yet, but the market is expecting it to turn around in the second half and grow next year,” said Clarence Chu, a trader with market maker Hudson Capital Energy in Singapore.
U.S. crude inventories continue to grow, suggesting American consumers and companies remain mired in a severe recession.
The Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories rose by 5.6 million barrels last week, more than twice what analysts expected. The total of 366.7 million barrels now in storage is the most held since Sept. 7, 1990, according to the EIA.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve reported a slowdown in activity at U.S. factories and mines. Total industrial capacity utilization rate fell to 69.3 percent from 70.3 percent, the lowest on records dating to 1967.
In March, industrial production declined for the fifth straight month, the Federal Reserve said. Production at U.S. factories, mines and utilities dropped a seasonally adjusted 1.5 percent last month.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for May delivery fell 0.65 cents to $1.39 a gallon and heating oil dropped 0.71 cents to $1.46 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery slid 2.0 cents to $3.61 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent prices jumped $1.11 to $52.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Japan Pledges up to $1 bln to Pak

TOKYO: Japan’s Prime Minister Taro Aso on Thursday promised up to one billion dollars in aid to help stabilise Pakistan, after meeting President Asif Ali Zardari on the eve of a donors meeting. Aso said at a media briefing after their talks that “I told him that Japan would make a pledge of up to one billion dollars” at the Tokyo aid conference on Friday that is jointly hosted by Japan and the World Bank.
The Japanese premier said Pakistan’s stability is important for the region and for “the peace and stability of the international community”.
President Zardari called Japan, already Pakistan’s biggest aid donor, “an important partner in the world. Japan is showing its responsibility by being always there to support Pakistan and its fight against terrorism.”
Almost 30 donor countries are to meet on Friday to raise what the World Bank hopes will be four to six billion dollars in loans and grant aid pledges for the poor, nuclear-armed country.
Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and US President Barack Obama has unveiled a sweeping new strategy to turn around the Afghan war and defeat Islamist militants on both sides of the border.
Zardari stressed in a newspaper article in Japan that his government is determined to fight Islamic militants, but said it needed an aid drive which he likened to the US Marshall Plan for post-World War II Europe.

Karachi Stock Exchange on Downslide, Loses 119 Points

KARACHI: Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) trading opened this morning downbeat, which in a state of confusion further aggravated, as the profit-takers went on selling spree and the KSE-100 index recorded a loss of over 100 points hardly an hour after the business today.
Market pundits said that the investors appeared to be focused on the outcome of the underway Friends of Pakistan Conference and donors conference in Tokyo before taking any new venture in the market. Meanwhile, KSE-100 index shedding 199 points pegged at 7551 points until the filing of this report.

Boao Forum Opens to Discuss Economic Challenges

SANYA: Annual Boao Forum for Asia opened to discuss with world leaders challenges and uncertainties that Asia faces in the light of the global financial crisis. President Asif Ali Zardari arrived here on Friday to represent Pakistan at the forum. The President arrived here from Tokyo after chairing a meeting of the Friends of Pakistan and a Donors Conference hosted by Japan to help the country confront economic challenges it was facing, particularly in the backdrop of activities of extremists and militants.
The theme of this year’s event is Asia: Managing Beyond Crisis where over the next three days delegates are expected to debate and discuss the impact of the crisis on Asia and how the region can weather these challenges effectively.
The Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), from April 17-19 in Boao, is a good opportunity for Asian nations to get together and think about strategies to deal with the current financial crisis, Pakistani’s Ambassador to China Masood Khan told the media team covering the President.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a keynote speech at Boao in the Hainan Province.
Apart from President Asif Zardari, the leaders who are attending the Boao Forum are Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Togolese President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe, Mongolian Prime Minister Sanj Bayar, Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Michael Thomas Somare and Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand Korbsak Sabhavasu, Iran’s Vice President Parviz Davoudi, besides former U.S. President George W. Bush and former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda.