
Brent crude hit a three-month high on Monday, extending gains that have lifted crude benchmarks by more than a third from this year’s lows on an improving global outlook and stronger sentiment for a market recovery.
Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 traded as high as $39.50, the highest since early December, and were trading at $39.30 a barrel at 1230 GMT, up 58 cents from their last settlement. In January, prices fell to levels not seen since 2003.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures fetched $36.53 a barrel, up 61 cents from the last close. The day’s high of $36.72 was more than 40 percent above February lows.
The May WTI contract settled on Friday at $35.92 a barrel, up 3.91 percent.