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Reuters Oil Surges on Fire, Yen Hits 4-Year High Wednesday March 31, 5:00 am ET By Nigel Stephenson Updates with European prices, new quotes, changes dateline LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices surged on Wednesday after a blast at the third largest refinery in the United States, boosting oil stocks in Europe, while the yen rose to its highest level against the dollar in four years. ADVERTISEMENT Expectations the European Central Bank could cut interest rates on Thursday faded, pushing the euro higher against the dollar and hitting government bond prices. Oil prices jumped half a dollar a barrel and gasoline price hit a record high after the explosion and fire at the BP refinery in Texas. Prices were already rising on expectations that OPEC (News - Websites) , meeting in Vienna, would implement planned output cuts on April 1. "The impact (of the blast) is much bigger because U.S. gasoline demand is expected to be strong this year while inventory level is still low," said Tony Nunan, manager at the international petroleum business of Mitsubishi Corp. U.S. light crude hit a high of $36.77 a barrel and was last at $36.35, up 10 cents. Brent crude for May was up 11 cents at $32.57, off a high of $33. Gasoline for April was at $1.1671 a gallon, off a record of $1.1768. BP said there was no indication of "any outside influence" in the blast and that the fire was out. Heavyweight oil stocks led a modest rise in European shares. BP was up 1.2 percent and France`s Total was up 0.9 percent. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index was up 0.49 percent and the narrower DJ Euro STOXX 50 index was up 0.69 percent. Tokyo shares edged up on growing optimism the Japanese economy is recovering despite the surge in the yen. The Nikkei average ended the 2003/04 fiscal year up 47 percent, its biggest gain in more than three decades. The Nikkei edged up 0.19 percent on Wednesday to 11,715.39. The broader TOPIX index rose 0.32 percent. "Given there`s less concern about banks` earnings and foreigners still have an appetite for Japanese stocks, we think the Nikkei can rise as high as 14,500 by June, although worries about the U.S. and Chinese economies might start weighing on the market after that," said Kenichi Azuma, a strategist at Cosmo Securities. YEN SURGES |
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