The August crude oil futures contract in NYMEX ACCESS trade at 11:15 Tokyo time on Monday was at $44.93 per barrel (bbl), down 48cts from the closing price in New York last Friday while the September Brent contract in ICE After Hours Trading was at $46.35/bbl, down 41cts from last Friday. Referring to the latest data on the US rig count announced last Thursday by US oil services company Baker Hughes Inc, Takayuki Nogami, a chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) said that an increase in the number of active rigs in the US weighed on crude oil prices. Meanwhile, the Nikkei Stock Average gained 518.52 points in Monday morning trade rising to 15,625.50 as the dollar strengthened to 100.66 to the yen.

RECX-22 index for Monday was at 67.86 points, down 1.89 points from last Friday due to the decline of crude oil prices.