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Oil prices decline on profit-taking

Xinhua, February 27, 2016 Adjust font size:

Oil prices closed lower Friday as investors took profits from earlier gains.

Oil prices grew broadly in early session Friday, with both U.S. oil and Brent crude jumping about 3 percent around midday, as strong U.S. gasoline demand and up-revised economic growth data boosted market sentiment.

According to U.S. Energy Information Agency's weekly report released Wednesday, U.S. gasoline demand rose 5.2 percent over the past four weeks compared with a year ago.

Moreover, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday in its second estimate that the country's real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, beating market consensus of 0.4 percent.

In the previous estimate, the increase in real GDP for the fourth quarter of 2015 was 0.7 percent.

The West Texas Intermediate for April delivery moved down 0.29 U.S. dollar to settle at 32.78 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for April delivery dropped 0.19 U.S. dollar to close at 35.10 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Endit