Oil extends losses on profit-taking

SINGAPORE: Oil prices extended losses on profit-taking in Asian trade Friday following sharp gains powered by the US central bank's pledge to retain its massive bond-buying programme, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light sweet crude for delivery in August, eased 11 cents to $104.80 a barrel in afternoon trade, while Brent North Sea crude for August delivery shed eight cents to $107.65.

WTI hit a 15-month high of $107.45 in New York on Thursday and Brent reached $108.93.

"Profit-taking is driving prices down. A lot of investors are taking short positions on oil right now," Kelly Teoh, market strategist at IG Markets in Singapore, told.

"But I still expect WTI to have strong short-term support at $102 on upbeat sentiment that Fed tapering will take a backseat for now," she said.

US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday said its $85 billion-a-month stimulus drive, known as quantitative easing (QE), would be kept in place "for the foreseeable future".