The September crude oil futures contract in NYMEX ACCESS trade at 17:15 Tokyo time on Wednesday was at $42.19 per barrel (bbl), down 58cts from the closing price in New York on Tuesday while the October Brent contract in ICE After Hours Trading was at $44.46/bbl, down 52cts from the previous day. "An unexpected increase for US crude inventories as per weekly American Petroleum Institute (API) led to selling that took a bite out of prices," Takayuki Nogami, a chief economist at Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC) pointed out. In addition to this, Nogami also said that added downward pressure came with reports that crude oil production by Saudi Arabia in July reached 10.67 mil bbl displacing a monthly high of 10.56 mil bbl achieved in June, 2015. Meanwhile, the Nikkei Stock Average settled at 16,735.12 points losing 29.85 points as the dollar stood at 101.45 against the yen.

RECX-22 index for Wednesday was at 64.18 points, up 0.34 points from Tuesday on the back of an increase in the benzene index.