Oil extends gains, shrugs off big jump in US crude inventories

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, to extend their gains despite a big jump in the US crude inventories.

The US Energy Information Administration revealed today that the country's crude inventories jumped 21.6 million barrels to 463 million barrels last week, worse than analysts' forecasts of a rise by 1.3 million barrels.

While the American Petroleum Institute (API) revealed yesterday in preliminary data that the US crude inventories rose 7.4 million barrels during the same period.

The dollar index rose against a basket of major currencies by 0.1% to 90.9 points as of 17:12 GMT, after hitting a high of 91.06 points and a low of 90.6 points.

As of 17:08 GMT, WTI crude April futures rose 3.1% to $61.6 a barrel, after hitting a high of $61.8 and a low of $59.2.

Brent May futures rose 2.6% to $64.3 a barrel, after hitting a high of $64.4 and a low of $62.3.