Commodities prices see gains

Crude oil prices were higher in London and New York on Thursday.

At late afternoon in London, September contracts for Brent crude were 29 cents higher to $77.05 per barrel on the Intercontinental Exchange, while early afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange found West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery 30 cents higher at $75.35 per barrel.

Futures prices for gasoline and heating oil were lower in New York, however, with Nymex August gasoline down 2 cents to $2.18 per gallon and September heating oil a cent lower to $2.12 per gallon.

Nymex September natural gas was up 9 cents to $6.70 per million British thermal units.

The declines in crude prices came after Total (Euronext: FP; NSYE: TOT) declared force majure after it had to cut exports from one of its oil fields in Angola by 50 percent.

Also affecting prices was the reaction to lower US gasoline inventories from last week.

Metals prices rose on the session.

Among precious metals, August gold was up $4.40 in New York to $678.10 per troy ounce, its highest close in just over two months, while September silver added 9 cents to $13.38 per troy ounce and October platinum traded at $1.30 higher to $1,338.50 per troy ounce.

Among base metals, lead and tin set new record highs during the day.

Lead added 4.4 percent to close at $3,340 per tonne in London after going as high as $3,345 per tonne earlier in the session., while tin gained 3.4 percent to $15,400 per tonne and traded at $15,700 per tonne earlier.

Copper was 2.3 percent higher to $8,000 per tonne in London and went as high as $8,005 per tonne after new usage figures from the International Copper Study Group and on ongoing difficulties in Latin America.

Among other base metals, nickel was up 3 percent to $34,000 per tonne, while aluminium added 2.1 percent to $2,837 per tonne and zinc was 1.9 percent higher to $3,565 per tonne.

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