The September crude oil futures contract in NYMEX ACCESS trade at 11:15 Tokyo time on Friday was at $44.80 per barrel (bbl), up 5cts from the closing price in New York on Thursday while the September Brent contract in ICE After Hours Trading was at $46.32/bbl, up 12cts from the previous day. "Although buying recouped some of the losses seen during trade in the West on Thursday, high inventories of gasoline stemmed the increase," Takayuki Nogami, a chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) pointed out. Meanwhile, the Nikkei Stock Average lost 156.05 points in Friday morning trade declining to 16,654.17 as the dollar depreciated to 105.79 to the yen.

RECX-22 index for Friday was at 70.56 points, up 1.31 points from the previous day.