Airlines and Oil Refiners Extend Losses In HK Due To Oil Leaps

Airlines and oil refiners extended their losses as crude oil prices edged close to 124 usd a barrel.

At 10:31 am, China Eastern Airlines was down 0.10 hkd or 2.87 pct at 3.38, Air China was down 0.19 hkd or 3.08 pct at 5.67 and China Southern was down 0.13 hkd or 2.56 pct at 4.94.

Cathay Pacific was, however, up 0.14 hkd or 0.86 pct at 16.30, after falling 3.7 pct yesterday.

Asia's largest refiner China Petroleum & Chemical (Sinopec) was down 0.17 hkd or 2.09 pct at 7.97, while PetroChina -- which also has refining operations -- was down 0.14 hkd or 1.22 pct at 11.32.

Pure upstream oil firm CNOOC was up 0.26 hkd or 1.87 pct at 14.16 as it will benefit from high crude prices.

In Asian trading today, world oil prices struck a fresh high of 123.87 usd a barrel despite a larger-than-expected rise in US energy stocks.

Crude oil prices have been rising on supply concerns related to Nigeria and Iran, and after Goldman Sachs forecast a possible 200 usd per barrel oil price within two years.