Brent rises nearly 2% on optimism over Covid-19 vaccines

Brent crude continued to rise as the US market opened on Monday, rising around 2% and near touching the 9-month high, on hopes of improved global demand for oil after the broad use of Covid-19 vaccines, which will help in containing the global pandemic that has hit fuel consumption.

Brent crude rose 2% to $50.78 a barrel, after opening at $49.86, with a low of $49.86.

Brent crude futures fell 0.8% on Friday, on profit-taking from the highest price since March at $51.04.

Oil prices gained 1.5% during the past week, in the sixth straight weekly gain, within the longest weekly gains streak since late April, thanks to positive news about Covid-19 vaccines.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday officially approved the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNtech Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for a large-scale vaccination campaign.

This makes the US the sixth country to approve the use of the vaccine after Britain, Canada, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

The European Medicines Agency is expected to approve the emergency use of the vaccine in Europe this week or next week at most.

Vaccination of the Chinese vaccine candidate developed by Sinopharm company began in many countries in Asia and the Middle East..

The widespread vaccination in most parts of the world would help in containing the global pandemic that has hit demand for fuel.

These developments raised prospects for fuel demand to improve after the expected easing of lockdown restrictions following the widespread use of vaccines.