Strong debut for Chinese oil futures

The first ever yuan-denominated crude-oil futures had a successful first day of trading yesterday, as China looks to expand its influence in the Asian oil sphere by establishing a new local benchmark.

After opening up over 6% at 9am, the futures contract due for September delivery closed 3.3% up at RMB429.9 ($68.07) per barrel on the Shanghai International Energy Exchange. Over 21 million barrels of the sulphur-rich oil were traded yesterday, reports the Wall Street Journal, meaning RMB18.3 billion ($2.9 billion) changed hands.

China, the world’s largest oil importer, is hoping that the yuan-denominated futures will help create a benchmark that reflects Asian markets better than the dominant Western indices Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate.