Oil prices fell below $70 per barrel on Friday, having failed to overcome the level of $72.90 per barrel. The reason for the first decline of quotations in five sessions became negative dynamics of U.S. stock markets.
As a result of trades on September 11, on the New York Mercantile Exchange the price of futures for WTI crude oil with delivery in October fell by $2.65 to $69.29 per barrel. On the InterContinental Exchange in London, the October contract for Brent Crude oil dropped in price by $2.17 to $67.69 per barrel.
Stock indexes in the U.S. fell for the first time in six days due to concerns that the strong growth in stock market does not correspond to the prospects for profitability.
The optimism of market participants did not recover even after the news that the Consumer Confidence Index in the United States jumped in September to 70.2 points from 65.7 points in August, exceeding analysts' expectations. Nevertheless, this limited the fall in quotations, along with the statement of management of FedEx Corp. that due to economic recovery and stable prices for fuel, the company's profits in the current and next quarter will be higher than projected earlier.
On this backdrop, the index of "blue chips" Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 0.23%, high-tech NASDAQ lost 0.15%, Standard & Poor's 500 broad-market index dropped to 0.14%.
Pessimistic sentiment of the participants of the stock trades were transferred to investors in the oil market as well, becoming a pretext for fixing profit and dropping the price of oil from the maximum intraday level - $72.90 per barrel. Additional pressure on prices was provided by data on stocks of gasoline, which rose as of Sept. 4 by 2.1 million barrels to 207.2 million barrels compared to the expected 1.5 million barrels.
In these circumstances, even weakening in the USD could not keep the oil market at more than $70 per barrel. The American currency demonstrated a reduction in the fifth session, as a result of which nearly reached the minimum level over the past year compared to major currencies. In the end of the day, the USD fell to 1.4595 USD/Euro compared to 1.4582 on previous day. At the same time during the day the U.S. currency reached a mark of 1.4634 USD/Euro. Nevertheless, this fact has supported oil prices during the first half of the day, causing the rise of quotations.
Currency market
Last week the official rate of the manat against the US dollar, set by the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, consolidated 0.0005 points or 0.05 percent. The average rate was established at 0. 0.80354 manats to 1 U.S. dollar.
Last week the maximum rate of the US dollar compared to manat was established on Sept. 7 (0. 8038 manats to 1 U.S. dollar) and minimum on Sept. 11 (0.8033 manats to 1 U.S. dollar).
As a result of last week's exchange rate of the Azerbaijani manat to the U.S. dollar, established based on results from the Baku Inter-bank Currency Exchange (BICEX), consolidated by 0.0006 points (0.06 percent). The average rate was fixed at 0.80316 to 1 U.S. dollar.
Deals concluded last week at BEST with transition to currency (T+0) comprised: Sept. 7, $0.1 million with the average sustained rate of 0. 8035 manats to 1 U.S., Sept. 8, $7.775 million with the average sustained rate of 0. 8033 manats to 1 U.S., Sept. 9, $1.125 million with the average sustained rate of 0. 8031 manats to 1 U.S. dollar, on Sept. 10, $3.36 million with the average sustained rate of 0. 8030 manats to 1 U.S. dollar and on Sept. 11, $4.72 million with the average sustained rate of 0.8029 manats to 1 U.S. dollar.
No deal was concluded with USD/AZN T+1, T+2 and SWAP_USD/AZN due to an absence of appeals by dealers. Appeals were not received on RUB/AZN and EUR/AZN (Ň+1, Ň+2).
Last week the price of the privatization vouchers increased one manat and purchase was 8 manats, and sale - 9 manats.
Market of privatization shares
The validity period of the vouchers will expire on Jan. 1 2010. So far, around 75 percent of vouchers has been derived, and another extension of their validity period remains uncertain.
