| GEO Business | | Oil hovers around 79 dollars in Asian trade | Updated at: 0907 PST, Monday, July 26, 2010
SINGAPORE: Oil prices rose slightly, extending gains in Asian trade Monday, as investors awaited the European market's reaction to last week's bank stress test results and as a US storm threat eased, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, edged up 13 cents to 79.11 dollars a barrel while Brent North Sea crude for September delivery gained 22 cents to 77.67 dollars.
"The oil market is likely to extend its gains, although they could be quite muted, while waiting for the European market to open. Support will come from the strong US equities markets on Friday," Serene Lim, a Singapore-based oil analyst with Australia's ANZ bank, told media.
The market's gains on Friday were helped by rising US equities as encouraging company earnings propelled Wall Street stocks to their best levels in a month but were pared after the stress test results were released.
Many analysts questioned the rigour of the assessments after the results found seven banks, mainly in Spain, failed the tests out of 91 banks assessed for resistance to economic upheaval. |  | | | |
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